Topic: 2024-Indiscriminate Weapons
Country: Albania
Delegate Name: Julia Malone
Indiscriminate weapons are incapable of discriminating between soldiers and civilians. Landmines, cluster munitions, and chemical agents weapons stay active even after fighting has ceased, causing civilian injuries and deaths, displacing people, and harming the environment. Concerning this, the international community has set rules or outright bans against indiscriminate weapons including the the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008.
Albania strongly condemns the use of indiscriminate weapons because of the devastating impact on civilian populations and long-term developmental consequences. Having previously experienced the dangers these weapons pose, Albania has suffered from residual effects caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance. Following the Kosovo conflict at the end of the 1990s, Albania engaged in an ambitious demining program with international support and subsequently declared itself mine-free in 2009.
Albania is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions and has joined international efforts to eliminate them. The Albanian government attaches great importance to these two treaties in minimizing the humanitarian and development impacts of armed conflict. However, Albania believes more needs to be done to ensure the universality of these agreements and address gaps in their implementation.
Over recent years, Albania has called for a ban on the use of indiscriminate weapons in ongoing conflicts where there is little or no international monitoring. Improved verification mechanisms would ensure that these treaties are respected. Albania also calls for more funding to achieve victim assistance, demining, and public awareness campaigns in the affected areas.
Albania is concerned about the stockpiling and production of cluster munitions by states which are not parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In a 2022 statement to the United Nations General Assembly, Albania urged that more must be done to hold accountable those states and non-state actors who use or supply indiscriminate weapons. Albania strongly believes that international cooperation and capacity building remain needed to address this concern.
In this committee, Albania strives to work on the development of international frameworks controlling indiscriminate weapons. Albania would look favorably upon heightened international support of demining efforts and other projects benefiting survivors. We look forward to collaborating with delegations ready to build a world free from the threat of undiscerning weapons.
Works Cited
Convention on Cluster Munitions. “Text of the Convention.” United Nations, 2008.
Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. Demining in Albania: A Success Story. GICHD, 2010.
Human Rights Watch. “The Impact of Cluster Munitions on Civilians.” Human Rights Watch, 2011, https://www.hrw.org.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines. “Albania Declared Mine-Free.” International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 2009, https://www.icbl.org.
United Nations. “Albania Statement on Indiscriminate Weapons – Sixth Committee (Legal) — 77th Session.” United Nations, Oct. 2022.
