This Friday night, Québécois pop star Céline Dion is holding a concert at our diplomatic negotiations venue, the massive Croke Park football stadium. Every time I walk down the corridors I see the stage being erected and her tune for the Titanic film comes into my head. We have to be out of here by midday on Friday meaning the treaty must be concluded by tomorrow at the latest, before it is translated and adopted. There are still a lot of issues to be resolved, however, and I really hope this ship doesn’t sink before it it reaches its destination.

I’m writing this at 1.00am, not because the treaty talks are continuing into the night, but due to all the other campaigning tasks I’ve taken on here in Dublin. Earlier this evening I escorted three Nobel Peace Laureates (Jody Williams, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire) to the Royal Dublin Hotel, where they gave their reflections on the cluster munition treaty. It was interesting to be in the company of three such distinguished women who have come together to advocate for peace and justice through the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

Tonight I also spent time incorporating all the scraps of paper and submissions received from campaigners for the Action Plan that I’ve agreed to draft for the campaign to achieve a good number of signatures on the finalised treaty as well as the 20 ratificatuions needed for it to take legal effect. The plan depends on whether we get a strong treaty in Dublin, but it will be important to show the government that we’re prepared to work with them to make the agreement a success.

Together with Rachel Good, I spent the rest of the night editing and preparing tomorrow’s Cluster Ban News update, a newsletter that we are preparing on behalf of the campaign to disseminate to delegates. I hope they have time to read it or at least look at my photos!

Within the next 48 hours we should see the successful conclusion of the Cluster Munition Convention - tomorrow will tell if it is a strong and effective agreement without loopholes, delays, or exceptions… Like the rest of the campaigners and diplomats here I’m tired, but it’s going to be difficult to sleep until we put this deal to bed…

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