War In Ukraine Erodes European Support For Humanitarian Disarmament

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The withdrawal of Lithuania from the convention banning cluster munitions has raised concerns among NGOs that this decision will encourage other states, worried about their own security, to disassociate themselves from treaties designed to protect civilians in wartime.

Dorian covers the work of international organisations based in Geneva.

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The news broke in the middle of the summer. On 18 July, the Lithuanian parliament decided to withdraw from the Oslo Convention, an international treaty that bans the use, production, and transfer of cluster munitions, deemed too harmful for civilian populations. Since its introduction in 2008, 111 States have ratified it.

Vilnius justified its decision by arguing that it would be“a mistake” for a country preparing its defence to deprive itself of these weapons when Russia is using them in its war in Ukraine.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions is one of the pillars of humanitarian disarmament, which consists of five conventions banning entire classes of weapons. The other four treaties prohibit landmines, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. No country had ever withdrawn from any of them.

The historic decision sent shockwaves through Geneva.“It really flies in the face of everything that international humanitarian law stands for,” says Tamar Gabelnick, director of the Cluster Munition CoalitionExternal link , that brings together NGOs that have campaigned for a ban on these bombs, which before hitting their target, scatter explosive fragments.“The aim of this legal framework is to protect civilians during armed conflict,” she points out.“So if a country is concerned that armed conflict might arise, it's exactly the wrong time to leave a convention that's meant to protect its own civilians.”

The war in Ukraine has turned the security landscape in Europe upside down, so much so that NGOs active in the fields of disarmament and humanitarian aid, as well as part of the international community, fear that other states will follow Lithuania's lead.

Usually reluctant to point the finger at individual countries, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reacted immediately with a press releaseExternal link . The Geneva-based organisation, which is the guardian of the rules of war, said it was concerned that Lithuania's withdrawal would send out a signal that these treaties, adopted in times of peace, could be abandoned in times of war.

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