Thank you very much.

I am pleased to be here today to speak to you about Bill C-6, the prohibiting cluster munitions act, which is an important and necessary step toward Canada's ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Cluster munitions are a very serious humanitarian concern. Deployed from the air or ground, some types of cluster munitions can release dozens or even hundreds of smaller submunitions, which can rapidly cover a large area. These can pose serious threats to civilians, not only during attacks but especially afterwards if they fail to detonate as intended. Unexploded bomblets can kill and maim civilians long after conflicts have ended. Sadly, many of these victims are children, who pick them up mistaking them for toys.

Even when they do not kill, cluster munitions cause horrific injuries that seriously jeopardize the future of those affected and their families. Furthermore, access to land and essential infrastructure contaminated by unexploded bomblets is blocked. This stalls the development potential of whole communities trying to rebuild their lives after conflict and undermines efforts at long-term stabilization.

Canada has long been committed to protecting civilians against the indiscriminate effects of explosive remnants of war. Canada has never produced cluster munitions, nor used them in Canadian Armed Forces-led operations. However, this weapon has been used by other states in more than 35 conflicts around the world since the end of the Second World War. Over 25 countries and other territories are thought to be contaminated by these munitions. Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, for example, remain some of the most heavily contaminated countries in the world decades after the conflicts there have ended.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force in August 2010. To date, the convention has 83 state parties. This number will grow to 84 on March 1, 2014, when the convention enters into force for Saint Kitts and Nevis. An additional 29 states have signed the convention but have not yet ratified it. Most of our NATO allies have signed or ratified it, although some, including the United States, Turkey and Poland, have not.

The convention bans the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, and transfer of cluster munitions. It prohibits countries that agree to be bound by it from taking part in these activities and from assisting or encouraging anyone else to do so. It obliges them to criminalize these activities in domestic law.

Furthermore, it seeks to address past use by requiring clearance of contaminated areas, rehabilitation for victims of these munitions, and where possible, assisting affected countries in need.

The convention also permits military cooperation and operations between states that are party to the treaty and those that are not. This is the so-called interoperability clause. From the beginning of the negotiations, Canada strongly supported the need to ensure that state parties could continue to collaborate militarily with non-state parties. The interoperability clause was an essential compromise that allowed many countries, including Canada, to sign the convention. It ensures that Canada will be able to continue participating in multinational military operations with its key allies that are not party to the convention, particularly the United States, with which we enjoy a robust and vibrant military cooperation.

Drawing the line between prohibiting use by countries that are party to the convention while allowing legitimate and responsible cooperation with countries that are not was the most difficult issue in the negotiations, given the complex situations and scenarios in which military cooperation takes place.

Bill C-6 implements those parts of the convention that require legislation in Canada. Other provisions are carried out by other means and not necessarily through legislative mechanisms. The obligation to advocate in favour of the convention's norms, for example, will be implemented through diplomatic channels, while programming is in place to provide assistance to states affected by cluster munitions.

I'm turning now to those provisions that require legislative implementation and that are included in Bill C-6, which is before you today.

The convention requires a state party to give effect to the prohibitions it imposes on states by imposing certain criminal prohibitions on persons within its jurisdiction. Accordingly, the proposed act sets out a series of offences and the technical definitions needed to support their investigation and prosecution.

More specifically, the bill prohibits the use, development, manufacture, acquisition, possession, import, export, and cross-border movement of cluster munitions. It also prohibits aiding, abetting, counselling, and attempting or conspiring to commit such offences or such activity.

The proposed act also sets out some exceptions to these general prohibitions. Since the convention calls for the use of criminal law it is necessary to create these exceptions to ensure that members of the Canadian Forces and associated civilians who are engaged in the military activities that are specifically permitted by the convention, in particular those relating to the interoperability clause of the convention, will not be held criminally responsible for doing their jobs.

It is important to recall, as I mentioned earlier, that such exceptions are permitted by the convention itself. They do not authorize any specific activity at any particular time. They simply exclude Canadian Forces members and associated civilians who are engaged in military activities from the new criminal offences that Bill C-6 would create under specific circumstances. They have been strictly Iimited so that only persons who are acting on behalf of Canada are excluded, only when the activity in question is part of a permitted form of military cooperation, and only when the other country involved is not a state party to the convention. This is very important because it means that as other countries join the convention and renounce these munitions the legal exclusions become progressively narrower in effect.

I should also point out that these exceptions do not detract in any way from any other applicable legal obligations, including those established by the law of armed conflict. Under international law the indiscriminate or disproportionate use of any weapon is a war crime, whether or not the weapon is a cluster munition, and could be subject to prosecution in Canada under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Nothing in Bill C-6 changes this.

Canadian armed forces members would remain prohibited from using cluster munitions in Canadian operations and from expressly requesting their use when the choice of munitions to be used is under their exclusive control. DND will impose additional prohibitions for its forces. My colleague from DND will speak to those in more detail.

Canada has already taken concrete measures to implement aspects of the convention. For example, the Canadian Armed Forces have initiated the process of destroying all of their cluster munitions. Their last remaining inventory has been removed from operational stocks and marked for destruction.

Canada is also assisting countries that are affected by cluster munitions. Since 2006, Canada has contributed more than $200 million to mine action projects, which address the impact of explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions. Most recently, Canada has provided $1 million in funding to Laos for cluster munitions clearance activities.

Canada is firmly committed to the goals of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. This bill, if enacted, will solidify that commitment by enabling Canada to ratify the convention and become part of the growing number of nations intent on eliminating the use of these weapons.

Thank you. Merci.

Transcript

Discussions (0)