Take Action
The Aotearoa New Zealand Cluster Munition Coalition calls on all governments to ban cluster bombs and join the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. The New Zealand government signed the Convention in December 2008 and ratified two years later.
Promote the Ban!
Please write to New Zealand’s Minister for Disarmament & Arms Control, Hon Georgina te Heuheu, to thank New Zealand for championing the Convention. Tell her to instruct our diplomatic representatives to actively promote the Convention with countries that have not joined, such as the 100-day countdown targets: Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina, Papua New Guinea, Thailand.
Get Pacific Support!
As of April 2010, a total of 106 governments have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Many more still need to sign, however, including Marshall Islands, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. Contact these countries and other non-signatories to urge their signature of the new treaty banning cluster bombs. Download and distribute our flyer.
Join the Countdown!
Please sign-up to our website to receive regular updates on the coalition’s work. If you are not in New Zealand check out the global campaign’s website to find out what is happening in your country. Sign the People’s Treaty to ban cluster munitions. Use Twitter, Facebook and other comms tools to count down to 1 August 2010, when the Convention will become legally binding.
CHRONOLOGY OF CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES
Public support has been critical in our campaign’s achievements including the February 2008 Wellington Conference and the Super Fund’s decision to divest from companies that produce cluster munitions. Our campaign actions and successes are listed below and a Chronology document can also be downloaded. The ANZCMC Coordinator is Ms. Mary Wareham.
2010
May. 31: 13th ANZCMC campaign meeting held in Wellington
May 28: ANZCMC meets with diplomatic representatives of Argentina and Vietnam to push for the cluster bomb ban
Apr. 28: Samoa ratifies the Convention on Cluster Munitions
Apr. 23: ANZCMC launches 100-Day Countdown to entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions
Feb 16: New Zealand’s Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control and ANZCMC issue statements welcoming the 30th ratification of the Convention
2009
Dec 22: Ambassador Jim McLay deposits the New Zealand’s instrument of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. New Zealand is the 25th state to ratify, followed later that day by Belgium.
Dec 17: New Zealand’s Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand signs the bill into law
Dec 15: ANZCMC reception in Wellington to celebrate the law and pending ratification
Dec 10: Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill passes its second and final reading in an expedited debate
Nov. 16-17: New Zealand official and ANZCMC coordinator attend regional conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Indonesia
Oct. 21: New Zealand attended a UN special event on the Convention on Cluster Munitions held at the UN in New York
Sep. 27: In an address to the opening of the UN General Assembly, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key welcoms the cluster bomb banand New Zealand’s role in its creation
Sep. 24: The ANZCMC coordinator appears before the FADT committee to present submission endorsed by sixteen members suggested a number of measures to strengthen and clarify the proposed legislation.
Sep. 14: Ambassador Don MacKay and ANZCMC coordinator give a talk on cluster munitions to students at Victoria University in Wellington
Aug 20: ANZCMC coordinator talks about cluster munitions at Auckland University
Aug 12-13: ANZCMC coordinator talks about cluster munitions at New Zealand Red Cross in Wellington and at Canterbury University in Christchurch
Aug. 12: ANZCMC remembers cluster bomb victims in Georgia and Lebanon by writing to urge cluster bomb users to renounce the weapon; Russia responds.
Jul. 28: First reading of the Cluster Munitions Prohibition Bill, which is referred to FADT select committeeJul. 21: The Cluster Munitions Prohibition Bill is introduced in the NZ parliament
Jun. 21: ANZCMC writes to FADT Select Committee members on ratification
Jun. 18: 12th ANZCMC campaign meeting
May 29: ANZCMC issues press release on global week of action & new HRW report
May: Parliamentary committee (FADT) issues a treaty examination report recommending the government “expeditiously” progress national implementation legislation
Apr. 24: ANZCMC writes to Murry McCully on Afghanistan
Mar. 7: ANZCMC launches new YouTube video on Dublin negotiationFeb. 9: 11th ANZCMC campaign meeting2008
Dec 3-4: New Zealand signs the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway together with 93 other governments.
Oct. 27-31: Ban Cluster Bomb Adshel posters by DraftFCB are displayed in 50 locations around Auckland and Wellington as part of a global week of action against cluster munitions. ANZCMC issues action alerts to encourage ban support by Brazil, Malaysia, Poland, Thailand and Vietnam.
Oct. 7: 10th ANZCMC campaign meeting
Sep. 3: ANZCMC protests Georgia’s use of cluster bombs in South Ossetia
Aug. 15: ANZCMC protests Russia’s use of cluster bombs in South Ossetia
Aug. 13: Pax Christi and ANZCMC members hold a vigil in Auckland to remember cluster bomb victims from Lebanon and pray for none in Georgia
Aug. 11-14: ANZCMC outreach at Pacific Regional Civil Society Organization Forum in Auckland
Jul. 21: 9th ANZCMC campaign meeting
May 30: The Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin, Ireland by 107 states including New Zealand. New Zealand’s Ambassador Don MacKay and ANZCMC Coordinator play important roles in ensuring the creation of this new agreement.
Apr. 28: 8th ANZCMC campaign meeting
Apr. 19: In support the second Global Day of Action, ANZCMC members hold a demo urging the Super Fund to divest now, a statement by 86 faith representatives is published in the Sunday Star Times. A new film by the ANZCMC’s award-winning agency DraftFCB is released on the campaign’s YouTube site.
Apr. 4: The Board of Guardians of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund announces that it will divest from companies that manufacture cluster munitions after the ban treaty is opened for signature at the end of 2008.
Mar. 10: 7th ANZCMC campaign meeting
Feb 22: A total of 82 governments endorse the Wellington Declaration committing them to negotiate a cluster bomb treaty in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008.
Feb. 20: More than 1,000 people participate in a chalk ‘lie-down’ petition-gathering event in Civic Square, Wellington to express their support for the cluster bomb ban. That night at Parliament, a delegation of cluster bomb survivors hands over a total of 3,367 petitions to the Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control Hon. Phil Goff.
Feb 18: The week-long Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions opens at the Town Hall. The ANZCMC hosts the international civil society delegation, comprised of 147 campaigners from 43 countries.
Feb. 16: 6th ANZCMC campaign meetingJan: A group of Australian NGOs unite to form the Cluster Munition Coalition Australia.
Jan. 18: 5th ANZCMC campaign meeting
2007
Dec. 17: 4th ANZCMC campaign meeting
Dec. 7: At the conclusion of the Vienna Conference, ANZCMC member Oxfam NZ issues a press release urging New Zealand to do its best in hosting the next global meeting of the Oslo Process in February 2008.
Nov. 28: The New Zealand Herald runs a multiple page “find the cluster bomb” advertisement prepared by communications agency DraftFCB on behalf of the ANZCMC.
Nov. 8: Australian photographer John Rodsted completes a speaking tour after talking to audiences in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland about his experience documenting civilian casualties to cluster bombs.
Nov. 5: On the first global day of action against cluster bombs, the ANZCMC launches its public campaign with a stunt over Wellington involving an airplane drop of thousands of cluster bomb shaped petition flyers
Sep. 27: 3rd ANZCMC campaign meeting
Jul. 27: Second ANZCMC campaign meeting (always held in Wellington unless otherwise noted)
Mar 22: New Zealand NGOs meet and agree to form the Aotearoa NZ Cluster Munition Coalition (ANZCMC) appointing Mary Wareham of Oxfam NZ as their coordinator