Worldwide Attempt for Complete Ban of Cluster Munitions

Human rights organizations such as Handicap International (HI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) have campaigned against the cluster munitions as a lethal weapon, which kill and maim thousands of civilians each year in places like Kosovo, Iraq and currently Lebanon. Cluster munitions are considered by many to be inaWorldwide Attempt for Complete Ban of Cluster Munitionsccurate weapons designed to spread damage indiscriminately and could therefore be considered illegal under multiple provisions of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.

The Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22-23 February 2007 was the first step in a process that could lead to an international ban on cluster munitions that causes unacceptable human suffering. Norway started a campaign to bring states and relevant NGOs together to formulate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit cluster bombs. 46 of 49 countries participating in the two-day Oslo Conference agreed to an action plan to develop a new international treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions by 2008 thus starting the so called 'Oslo Process'.

In June 2007, the USA said it will not support a cluster munitions ban but that it is open to negotiations to reduce the humanitarian impact by requiring the increased reliability, accuracy and visibility of unexploded munitions.

In November 2007, representatives from 102 state parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons agreed to a new pact regarding "the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions", but failed to agree on a complete ban.

Representatives from 138 states and civil society participants from 50 countries attended the Vienna Conference on Cluster Munitions (VCCM) from 5-7 December. The level of participation was in itself a major success and a sign of the growing momentum and political will driving the Oslo Process towards a conclusion in 2008. During negotiations aimed at achieving a cluster bomb ban treaty, mainly European producer and states with huge military stockpiles as France and Germany called for provisions to weaken the treaty including exceptions for weapons with certain technical features (often corresponding to their own stockpiled munitions), transition periods in which the banned weapon could still be used and ways to deal with “interoperability” concerns (joint military operations with potential user states outside the treaty), thus pushing for a partial rather than a complete ban on cluster bombs.

It is expected that a cluster munitions ban treaty will be signed in 2008 and that it will be a strong, comprehensive, and well-designed treaty supported by a critical mass of countries around the world. The process has already started with complete bans in some countries.

Belgium has become the first country in the world to ban the manufacture and use of cluster bombs, approving a bill in the lower and upper house of parliament July 2007. At least one Belgian company - Forges de Zeebrugge manufactures the weapons.

Austria is the second country to ban cluster munitions. The Austrian Parliament passed legislation setting a complete ban on cluster munitions and aiming to destroy Austria's stockpile of approximately 10,000 devices over three years.

Approximately 85 companies in 34 countries have produced more than 200 types of cluster munitions - artillery projectiles and aerially delivered bombs, 74 countries have cluster munitions stockpiles, while at least 23 countries have used cluster munitions.

According to the CMC's Definition a 'cluster munition' is a weapon comprising multiple explosive submunitions which are dispensed from a container.

Cluster munitions are large weapons that open in mid-air and scatter widely in smaller submunitions. Cluster bombs carry up to 200 bomblets, each the size of a soft drink can. These munitions spread their contents over a large field, with a radius of up to 600 m. They are aimed against targets that move or do not have precise locations, such as enemy troops or vehicles. In the army they are also known as “steel rain”.
Cluster munitions pose an immediate danger to civilians during attacks, especially in populated areas, because they are inaccurate and have a wide dispersal pattern. They also endanger civilians long after the conflict due to the high number of submunitions that do not explode on impact to the ground and become de facto landmines. In recent years, more countries are producing or importing new cluster munitions with technologies such as self-destruct fuzes and guidance systems. While less harmful, most of these more advanced cluster munitions also pose great threats to civilian populations, due to their wide footprint (strike area) and still significant failure rate of self-destruction. When submunitions explode, they project hundreds of shrapnel fragments, which are capable of killing or severely injuring anyone close to, or even at a distance from, the blast.The cluster munitions are more dangerous for a number of reasons:

• There are large numbers of released submunitions. Nearly every cluster bomb will leave behind a significant amount of hazardous unexploded bomblets.
• Cluster munitions are even more volatile and difficult to clear and destroy than landmines.
• Cluster bombs are much more likely to cause death than injury, making them de facto more lethal than landmines.
• Most cluster bombs are unguided, out-of-control so they can miss their mark, hit nearby civilian objects and disperse over an area that is not always predictable.

Human rights organizations claim that more than 90 % of the victims of the cluster munitions are civilians. In many countries accidents occur when people attempt to move unexploded ordnances out of economic necessity, curiosity or social responsibility. Civilians have to clear land for farming and housing or to prevent children from playing with them. In poor communities, it is common for civilians to salvage military debris like cluster munitions for their saleable scrap metal. Their interesting shape, size, and sometimes, bright colour make cluster bombs especially attractive to children. In most contaminated countries, the majority of victims are children. [!] The military use of cluster munitions leads to wide human, social, financial and environmental consequences for civilians at time and after war conflicts.

Cluster bombs have been used over the last 60 years in about 17 countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo. The latest use of cluster munitions was in the Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah. Human rights groups have denounced the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas by both Israel and Hezbollah during the 2006 conflict because of the inaccuracy of the weapons and the strong possibility of hitting unintended targets. It was reported that cluster bomblets have been responsible for 30 civilian deaths since the conclusion of the Lebanon war. An Israeli military prosecutor has concluded that Israel's use of cluster bombs during the 2006 Lebanon war was justified and did not violate any standards of international law. However, during the Vienna Conference December 2007, a Norwegian report revealed how the latest generation of M85 cluster bombs, equipped with a self-destruction mechanism, used in Lebanon in 2006, revealed a 10% failure rate, and not 1% as officially cited by the states producing and stockpiling this type of weapon.

Sources: HI, CMC, HRW, Jurist