Individual member organisations of the CMC undertake domestic campaigning activities to promote adherence with the goals of the CMC within their respective governments. This has involved writing letters to the elected officials responsible for foreign affairs and defence in the government. For example, Mines Action Canada recently wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to encourage Canada’s swift ratification of Protocol V of the CCW. A further letter is planned to encourage the Canadian government to endorse the CMC call and cease the use of cluster munitions, to destroy its current stockpiles of unacceptable cluster munitions and to press for negotiations on a new instrument imposing strict regulations on the use of cluster munitions. Many other individual member organisations have written and plan to write similar letters to their own governments.

As a coalition the CMC focuses its multilateral efforts on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) that convenes in Geneva three times a year for meetings of its Group of Governmental Experts. This group is mandated to discuss explosive remnants of war, including measures to address the humanitarian impact of submunitions. The group also discusses the issue of anti-vehicle mines.

The CMC has called on States Parties to the CCW to agree on a mandate for negotiations within the CCW on a new Protocol restricting the use of cluster munitions. This mandate would have to include restrictions on the use and targeting of cluster munitions within civilian areas and it would have to include strict technical standards aimed at reducing the number of submunitions that remain unexploded and threaten civilians, humanitarian workers, peacekeepers and friendly forces.

Further campaigns at the national and international levels are planned in the future and information on these campaigns will be posted here as soon as it is available. The CMC welcomes all ideas and suggestions for campaigns. Please send any campaign ideas to thomas@minesactioncanada.org.