Philippines Leads 2025 Intersessional Meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions 

GENEVA 11 April 2025 — Following the decision made at the 12th Meeting of States  Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) in 2024 and the 2nd CCM  Review Conference in 2020/2021, the Philippines led the conduct of the 2025 Intersessional Meeting of the CCM on 07 and 08 April 2025.  

In his remarks as president of the 13th Meeting of States Parties (13MSP),  Ambassador Carlos D. Sorreta thanked the States Parties to the CCM for the trust  placed upon him to steer the Convention towards its 3rd Review Conference in 2026,  and stated that the primary focus of the Intersessional Meeting, which gathered  around 130 participants comprising delegates and representatives from States  Parties, civil society organizations, and mine action operators, is on the status of the Convention’s implementation and to assess the progress and challenges encountered in implementing the Lausanne Action Plan and Lausanne Declaration.  

Ambassador Sorreta also shared that the meeting’s goal is to provide a venue for an  open and constructive dialogue among the wider CCM community in light of the recent  challenges to the fundamental norms of the Convention.  

At the meeting, many states parties declared the reaffirmation of their commitment to  their obligations in the Convention and of their support to its norms. Some states also  underscored the need to further advance the broadening of support to the Convention  

and appreciated the Philippines’ efforts in hosting the “Southeast Asia and Pacific  Regional Workshop on the Convention on Cluster Munitions” on 18-19 March 2025 in  Manila.  

The meeting also tacked the challenges to the CCM and to the overall humanitarian  disarmament agenda such as the regression in the universalization of the Convention  as well as other humanitarian disarmament conventions such as the Anti-Personnel  Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) due to the decision of some states parties to withdraw  from these treaties; the lack of sustainable funding for mine action; and the need to  advance personnel training and acquire additional equipment to facilitate mine  clearance, among others.  

The last intersessional meeting of the CCM took place in 2022 under the United  Kingdom’s Presidency of the 10th Meeting of the States Parties to the CCM.  

The Philippines is among the 124 countries that have joined the CCM. Since ratifying  it in 2019, the Philippines has been actively promoting the accession of other countries  to the Convention. In 2019 and 2020, the Philippines carried out activities to advance  the universalization of the CCM, especially in the Southeast Asia region. 

Cluster munitions can kill and injure a massive number of civilians and non combatants, during and after armed conflicts. The CCM bans the use of these  indiscriminate weapons, as well as their production, stockpiling, and transfer. Since  the adoption of the CCM, more than 400 kilometers of contaminated land has been  cleared of cluster munition remnants. Many States Parties have also destroyed the  vast majority of their cluster munition stockpiles. END

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