On the occasion of the Dublin summit on cluster bombs, the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs of the Irish Bishops Conference and the association for aids to the Third World, Trocaire, made an appeal for these bombs to be banned by the international community. The bishops recalled that Ireland played a guiding role, along with another seven countries, including the Vatican, in promoting negotiations for the abolition of cluster bombs and that the Irish government promised it will enforce a new legislation against these weapons, even if the producer countries will try to limit its impact. The bishops stated that Ireland has a reputation for being committed to promoting peace; it has actually been the first country to sign the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty in 1967 and has substantially contributed, during the negotiations for the Ottawa treaty in 1997, to putting a total ban on anti-personnel mines. Quoting the words of the Holy See which declared the use of cluster bombs as "unacceptable", the bishops asked the Irish delegation at the conference to prevent the interests of the nations that produce and use these bombs from pushing into the background the moral duty to protect innocent civilians.” ” ” “
