Cluster munitions

For more than 30 years cluster munitions have been recognised as a weapon that causes unnecessary harm to civilians. A new Convention banning these weapons was formally adopted in Dublin on the 30 May 2008. This Convention will be open for signature and ratification in Oslo on the 2-3 December 2008. The process that led to this Convention is known as the Oslo Process.

Cluster munitions consist of a container filled with lots of explosive ‘submunitions’.  These containers might be dropped as bombs from aircraft or fired from artillery or rockets. The container breaks open in mid-air and the submunitions (or bomblets) are released - effectively carpet bombing an area the size of two or three soccer pitches. Anybody within that area, be they military or civilian, is likely to be killed or injured. When cluster munitions are used in or near areas of civilian population these attacks should be presumed to be in breach of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions which prohibits indiscriminate attacks.

As so many of the submunitions fail to work properly, they cause lethal contamination that can last for decades.  It is because of this contamination that they are often compared with landmines.   They block access to land and kill and injure people trying to rebuild their lives after conflict.

Landmine Action is on the Steering Committee of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC).  Landmine Action has conducted extensive research on the civilian harm caused by cluster munitions and on how governments have responded to this harm.  Through field work Landmine Action is clearing cluster munitions in areas of forgotten conflict.  Landmine Action is campaigning for an international prohibition on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.