When I was in Oslo with the Ban Advocates, I knew that Afghanistan was not ready to sign. But when I spoke with the Afghan Delegation on the day of the signing conference I was very happy to hear about the news that Afghanistan would sign.

I thank my country Afghanistan for signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions. I request Afghanistan to ratify and not to let it be just a piece of paper, but to put it into practice, and to make a real change in the life of the victims.

If you do not want to have your citizens, in particular your children, face the challenges I am facing, as many countries as possible, and especially in this huge affected region, must sign, ratify and implement the Convention to save the lives of human beings from the nasty effects of cluster munitions.

I kindly request the countries that signed and ratified the Convention to help other countries financially and technically to plan action, especially for Victim Assistance.

We, the Ban Advocates, came here to the Conference for your support and we are ready to work with you and our governments at national level in developing action plans for the support of victims to meet their needs.

Survivors know best what they need. So listen to us.

Soraj Ghulam Habib