2023 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW)
Statement by Sri Lanka, 16 November 2023
Mr. President,
We take this opportunity to congratulate you on the assumption of the Presidency of the 2023 Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. We also thank the ISU of CCW for facilitating the meeting and the process of implementation of the Convention.
We are confident that this meeting of High Contracting Parties will lead to constructive discussions and substantive outcome will further strengthen the universal implementation and adherence to the Convention by all parties to end devastative use of arms and their destructive impact, in order to ensure the wellbeing of entire human kind.
Sri Lanka continues to express its serious concerns at the unprecedented loss of life and suffering of the people of Palestine causing a grave humanitarian situation due to the escalation of violence and military action in Gaza. We condemn the use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas affecting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Sri Lanka also condemns terrorism in all its forms, including by all those who resort to violence to achieve their goals whether political or otherwise.
Sri Lanka supports the urgent call of the UN Secretary General and UNGA for an immediate ceasefire and for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to provide unimpeded access for humanitarian aid including supplies of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity as well as access to aid workers into the besieged areas.
At this critical juncture where the escalation of violent acts is witnessed in many parts of the world, we believe and recognize the CCW framework as an important component of multilateral disarmament, to develop international law to ‘ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately in armed conflicts of international and non-international nature’. Therefore, we believe that a vital responsibility lies in the hands of High Contracting Parties to assess the emerging sophisticated High-Tec warfare technologies and bring international community to a consensually agreed mechanism to address the related issues.
Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions 11 – 14 September 2023
Statement by Sri Lanka
Agenda Item 8: General Exchange of Views
Thank you Mr. President,
Sri Lanka joins other delegations in congratulating you for assuming the Presidency of the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. I wish to assure you of my delegation’s fullest support towards a productive outcome of our deliberations. We also warmly welcome Nigeria and South Sudan as the 111th and the 112th States Parties to the Convention. This is an important step towards universalization of the Convention.
Mr. President,
As a country which has never used, developed, produced, acquired or stockpiled Cluster Munitions even during the time of a brutal terrorist conflict, Sri Lanka wishes to reiterate its strong and enduring commitment to realizing the core objectives of the Convention inter alia ‘to put an end for all time to the suffering and casualties caused by cluster munitions’.
We consider that the Convention on Cluster Munitions is a significant disarmament treaty adopted by more than half of the world in the past decade, with far-reaching obligations.
General Intervention by H.E. Himalee Arunatilaka, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, on 28 August 2023
Mr. Chair,
Sri Lanka compliments the work accomplished by you as the Chair of this open-ended working group to date, based on the mandate given by General Assembly resolution 76/231. We are thankful to all Member States for their constructive engagement throughout the past sessions towards reaching a substantive outcome of this working group.
Mr. Chair,
Sri Lanka recognizes the common interest of humankind in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes without discrimination. Sri Lanka has been actively engaging in multilateral efforts for the prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) over many decades since becoming a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. Significantly, Sri Lanka proposed a moratorium on the testing and development of space weapons preceding multilateral negotiations on a treaty to prohibit all weapons in space in 1985.
Intervention by Dr. Samiddhi Samarakoon, National Coordinator, Disaster Preparedness and Response Division of the Ministry of Health on National Inventory of Dangerous Pathogens (NIDP)
Thank you Mr. Chair,
I take this opportunity to brief on the background of the establishment of National Inventory of Dangerous Pathogens (NIDP) in Sri Lanka which is a key step in national implementation of the BWC. Following the Joint External Evaluation of International Health Regulations (IHR) implementation in 2017, while acknowledging the several activities that were undertaken to improve the biosafety and biosecurity in Sri Lanka, it was recommended to develop a National Inventory of Dangerous Pathogens and Toxins (NIDP) as well to further strengthen the biosafety and biosecurity in the country.
Thus, action was undertaken to develop the National Policy on Biosafety and Biosecurity, including policy statements required to satisfy the 15 Articles of the BWC; appointing two contact points including the National Coordinator, Disaster Preparedness and Response of the Ministry of Health. The Disaster Preparedness and Response Division (DPRD) of the Ministry of Health applied for extended assistance from the UNODA for implementation activities of BWC and BWC-ISU in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RVIM), of the Netherlands supported Sri Lanka to develop the NIDP. We are grateful to the Government of the Netherlands and UNODA for this assistance and the European Union (EU) for funding the project.
Intervention by Dr. Samiddhi Samarakoon, National Coordinator, Disaster Preparedness and Response Division of the Ministry of Health on the Implementation of Biological Weapons Convention Plan in Sri Lanka
Mr. Chair,
Thank you for giving me the floor. First of all, I would like to express sincere appreciation of Sri Lanka delegation for your steady stewardship of this Working Group. I also thank the ISU staff and the representatives of other international organizations for their presentations on important topics.
Sri Lanka has also been in the forefront of major initiatives in the field of disarmament and was among the very first countries to sign the BWC in 1972.
Intervention on the revised draft
Mr. Chair
Thank you very much for sharing this new draft.
Even though many delegations in this room argued for strengthening of the text in order to ensure that centrality of human control is retained in AWS in order to ensure compliance with international law and IHL in particular, we are quite concerned that the text in several ways is now even further weakened to the extent that we run the risk of even previously agreed understandings are backtracked. Our concerns are mainly with paragraph 20 such as deletion of the word ‘anticipation. Which we believe is already an IHL requirement as well as concerns regarding para 21 in this regard.
Adoption of a substantive repot is important for our delegation as much as it is the same for other delegations but we believe that it should be progressive and forward looking in nature.
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