Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Bali, Indonesia, 16-17 November 2009
By Stephanie Castanie on Sunday, November 15 2009, 16:00 - News - Permalink
An important delegation of Asian Ban Advocates arrived in Bali on Friday 13 November to attend the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Univerzalisation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will take place on Monday and Tuesday 16 and 17 November.
From the group of Ban Advocates, some of them like Soraj from Afghanistan or Thi from Vietnam have already been involved in previous conferences, as well as in national advocacy projects. Moreover, several cluster munition survivors have joined the Ban Advocate’s project for the first time and are attending this regional conference, they are: Vijak from Lao PDR, Khushal from Afghanistan, Huong and Le from Vietnam.
On Saturday, we had time to introduce ourselves to each other, and to prepare ourselves for the conference by writing our speeches, as well as through media training. We also got organized and ready to lobby governments.
A total of 21 countries will attend the conference, most of them haven’t signed yet the Convention. Four of us will deliver speeches to governments and the campaign, which is a great opportunity for us to persuade countries located in the most affected area, to sign, ratify and implement the Convention. The needs of cluster munition survivors in those affected countries are huge, and we will also need international cooperation to help affected countries provide victim assistance and to clear contaminated areas.
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