Bangkok, 1 August 2010 - On the 1st of August the Convention on Cluster Munitions came into force, becoming binding international law in 107 countries around the world.

Adopted in Dublin on 30 May 2008 and opened for signature in Oslo in December 2008, the Convention bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and calls for the destruction of stockpiles within eight years, clearance of cluster munition-contaminated land within 10 years, and assistance to cluster munition survivors and affected communities.

Published Date: August 4, 2010
By Ly Sovanna, Siem Reap

The Cambodian government should sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions as these devices continue to kill people, say participants at an event marking the convention becoming international law.

Published Date: August 3, 2010
By Panithan Kitsakul, Bangkok

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Thailand is urging the government to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions even as it celebrated the convention becoming international law on Aug. 1.

Undeterred by the storm clouds gathering ominously over Phnom Penh, over 80 urban refugees and asylum seekers clamoured into the back of JRS vehicles and luckily for most, were able to reach Don Bosco vocational school in Phnom Penh Thmey for a World Refugee Day soccer match before the monsoon rains hit.

Refugees are not people experiencing economic difficulties but people who face possible death if they remain in their home countries, participants at a World Refugee Day program in Bangkok learnt.

“As Tamils, my family was threatened. We were afraid to be killed by the military and therefore decided to escape,” said Thulika, 18, a Sri Lankan.

“In Thailand, even though we are not threatened, we are still not free … We can’t work legally. My brother and myself can’t go to school,” said Thulika, who came to Thailand four years ago to escape the civil war.

Thulika was one of two refugees who spoke about their plight during a June 20 Mass organized by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) to mark World Refugee Day and the service’s 30th anniversary.

Jesus Himself Experienced Migration

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees once again gives me the opportunity to express the Church's constant concern for those who, in different ways, experience a life of emigration. This is a phenomenon which, as I wrote in the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities. The migrant is a human person who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance (cf. n. 62).