On Friday, campaigners decided to draw more attention to the United States, described by the newsletter as an “elephant not in the room” at these negotiations to create the cluster bomb ban treaty. I headed over to the US embassy in Dublin around midday with a small, but vocal group including several “US citizens against US cluster bomb policy.” The Iraqi cluster bomb survivors also came, including Ahmed Najem who lost his arm.  Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams did a bunch of media on the United States with articles in the Boston Globe and Reuters.

(Dublin: 22 May 2008) Outside the entrance to the main plenary room I’ve noticed a sign telling the story of “The Big Fight,” a boxing match between then-heavy weight champion Muhammed Ali and Al “Blue” Lewis that took place in 1972 at Croke Park, the venue for our Dublin conference on cluster bombs. While we made some progress on victim assistance today, deliberations were tense and difficult on other parts of the ban treaty text and it appears we are indeed headed into our very own “Big Fight.” Read more

(Dublin: 21 May 2008) The formal talks appeared to be progressing well on the third day of the Dublin Conference. The campaigners present in Dublin, especially from Africa and the Americas, are making significant progress through a concerted lobby effort, but the outcome of the conference is still unknown. Read more

Immediately after the opening plenary concluded yesterday, the President of the Conference, Irish Ambassador Daithi O’Ceallaigh, got down to business. The Rules of Procedure were adopted with no objections (very good news). Then the diplomats remained in the plenary hall for the “Committee of the Whole” in which the draft treaty text was read article by article. Any government could intervene during this reading and, if the President felt there was no consensus on a particular issue, he appointed a Friend of the Chair to search for agreement by convening informal consultations or bilateral meetings on the subject. Read more

(Dublin: 19 May 08) Today the campaigners came together outside the conference venue as delegates were arriving to welcome them with a sea of banners and arms that showed the public support in their countries for the ban on cluster bombs. Then the (new) Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin came out to receive 704,715 petition signatures gathered from around the world calling for a ban on cluster bombs. The total included 7,202 petitions collected from the New Zealand public (the 3,367 presented to Hon. Phil Goff on 20 February 2008 and additional signatures received since then). Read more

(Dublin: 18 May 08) At lunchtime today, campaigners from around the world welcomed the Irish Ban Bus to Dublin. Australian campaigner John Rodsted and Norwegian development expert Mette Eliseuessen have been touring around Ireland and Northern Ireland to raise public awareness on the need to create a strong treaty banning cluster bombs. Read more