Convention on Cluster Munitions Bill (Law'd)

[minionofmidas]

Convention Cluster Munitions on Bill

The Republic of Atlasia shall become a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions as agreed in Dublin in May 2008.


Sponsor: Jas.


Convention on Cluster Munitions


The "on" in the title is misplaced. Friendly amendment to change that.
Besides, I'm not sure if this is a bill. What's the procedure regarding the ratification of international conventions here? I'd need to check.

[Јas]

The "on" in the title is misplaced. Friendly amendment to change that.

Accepted.

[minionofmidas]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I object to 99%+ of all international conventions that destroy our individual thinking for some group gain.  However, I did read this just to see if it was any different.  However, it is not and I intend to vote against this bill so that Atlasia continues to put its own interests first and use any method to defend itself that it can

[Torie]

What are cluster munitions exactly, and how do they work?

[Hash]

What are cluster munitions exactly, and how do they work?

This

[Bacon King]

I agree with this bill/resolution/whatever-it-be; unexploded cluster bomblets can be as dangerous as land mines to civilians.

[Torie]

Pretty bad dudes. There would need to be a rather essential military need for them, for reasons other than offing civilians. What is the moral military raison d'etre for them? By moral, I mean accomplishing a military task that has no other reasonable means to accomplish, whose end is not to off civilians.

[Јas]

Pretty bad dudes. There would need to be a rather essential military need for them, for reasons other than offing civilians. What is the moral military raison d'etre for them? By moral, I mean accomplishing a military task that has no other reasonable means to accomplish, whose end is not to off civilians.

I'm not aware that there is any objective which cannot be achieved by other means, but I have been told that they are particularly useful in clearing jungle-type areas to allow helicopter landings. They are also quite effective at taking out infrastructural targets (e.g. airport runways, electricity stations, etc.) and may quite possibly be the most efficient delivery vehicles for certain chemical weapons. That said, I understand that any and all of these can be achieved by alternative means.

I'd also note though that though the Treaty bans the great majority of cluster munitions, it does make exceptions (per Article 2):

"It [cluster munitions] does not mean the following:
(a) A munition or submunition designed to dispense flares, smoke, pyrotechnics or chaff; or a munition designed exclusively for an air defence role;
(b) A munition or submunition designed to produce electrical or electronic effects;
(c) A munition that, in order to avoid indiscriminate area effects and the risks posed by unexploded submunitions, has all of the following characteristics:
(i) Each munition contains fewer than ten explosive submunitions;
(ii) Each explosive submunition weighs more than four kilograms;
(iii) Each explosive submunition is designed to detect and engage a single target object;
(iv) Each explosive submunition is equipped with an electronic self-destruction mechanism;
(v) Each explosive submunition is equipped with an electronic self-deactivating feature"

[Sensei]

this is an easy "aye" for me.

[minionofmidas]

Final vote. Please vote aye, nay or abstain.

Convention on Cluster Munitions Bill

The Republic of Atlasia shall become a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions as agreed in Dublin in May 2008.

[Bacon King]

aye

[Јas]

Aye

[Verily]

Aye

[Torie]

Aye

[minionofmidas]

Current vote count: Aye 4 (Bacon, Jas, Verily, Torie)
Nay 0
abstain (voted) 0
abstain (yet to vote) 6 (Lewis, Al, Meeker, Dwtl, Sensei, Culture)

[DownWithTheLeft]

To quote Washington:
"Foreign entanglements suck"

Nay

[Filuwaúrdjan]

aye

[Sensei]

aye

[minionofmidas]

This bill has enough votes to pass. Senators have 24 hours to change their votes.

Current vote count: Aye 6 (Bacon, Jas, Verily, Torie, Al, Sensei)
Nay 1 (Dwtl)
abstain (voted) 0
abstain (yet to vote) 3 (Lewis, Meeker, Culture)

[minionofmidas]

Having finally gotten around to researching it, yes this does seem to be the established procedure for ratifying treaties.

Gladly voting Aye in that case.

[minionofmidas]

This bill has passed. It is presented to the President for his signature or veto.

Final vote count: Aye 7 (Bacon, Jas, Verily, Torie, Al, Sensei, Lewis)
Nay 1 (Dwtl)
abstain (voted) 0
abstain (did not vote) 2 (Meeker, Culture)

[CultureKing]

aye ftr

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Gladly sign'd; law'd.

[Јas]