Canada has signed onto an international treaty to ban cluster bombs, though the U.S. and Russia have declined to join the effort.
Canada became a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions on Wednesday when Jillian Stirk, Canada's ambassador to Norway, signed the document on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon.
The convention bans members from using, stockpiling, producing or transferring cluster weapons -- small explosives which are designed to cover a large area in a short period of time and are particularly dangerous to civilians and children, long after periods of conflict.
"This convention is a significant achievement. Over time, it will save the lives of many thousands of people around the world and will help to end the use of a weapon that has devastating effects on civilians," Cannon, who is in Ottawa to deal with the current political crisis, said in a news release.
He said Canada will work closely with other nations in the convention, the United Nations, Red Cross and others to "rid the world of cluster munitions, and as far as possible repair the shattered lives of people who have suffered because of them."
Part of the purpose of the treaty is to shame the U.S. and Russia, along with China and others, into abandoning the weapons.
Norway began the drive and was the first to sign on, followed by Laos and Lebanon, two countries with first-hand experience with the weapons and their effects.
"Banning cluster bombs took too long. Too many people lost arms and legs," said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at a news conference.
Some of those nations that have refused to sign-on maintain that cluster weapons have legitimate military uses.
Washington has said that an all-out ban on the weapons would hurt world security and could endanger U.S. military co-operation on humanitarian projects in countries that do sign onto the convention.
Organizers of the campaign hope it will gain momentum in a similar fashion to a 1997 effort to ban landmine use. In total 158 countries have signed onto the pact that originated in Ottawa, though the U.S., Russia and China all abstained.
"Once you get half the world on board, it's hard to ignore a ban," Australian anti-cluster bomb campaigner Daniel Barty told The Associated Press.
"One of the things that really worked well with the land-mine treaty was stigmatization. No one really uses land mines."
More than 100 countries are expected to sign the cluster-bomb convention over Dec. 3 and 4.
The news release from Cannon's office said it is the right thing to do.
"In Canada's view, the Convention on Cluster Munitions strikes an appropriate balance between humanitarian and security considerations. It establishes the highest international humanitarian standards with respect to cluster munitions, while allowing its signatories to continue to engage in combined security operations with allies that have not signed," states the release.
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