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Explosive remnants of war (ERW)

Explosive remnants of war comprise ordnance which fails to detonate on impact, or ordnance which has been left behind. ERW may have a greater impact on civilian lives after conflict than landmines.

How ERW affects communities

• Men aged between 18 and 40, followed by children, are most at risk from ERW incidents, although casualties come from all demographic groups.
• As ERW are devices that have failed to function as intended, they are unpredictable: they may or may not explode on human contact. They have the potential to detonate from a range of stimuli, including changes in temperature and the smallest degree of disturbance.
• Incidents involving ERW cause multiple casualties and the type of medical care needed for victims of ERW is beyond the means of a great majority of local hospitals in the developing world.
• The negative effects of ERW, like mines, are many and subtle. In Laos, for example, many families have learnt to accept malnutrition rather than work land that is suspected to contain ERW.

Global overview

Between January 2001 and June 2002, ERW casualties were reported in 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, 19 in Europe and Central Asia, 12 in the Middle East and North Africa, eight in Asia and five in the Americas. In many of these cases, ERW were the result of conflicts that had occurred a decade or more ago.

There is an urgent need within the international community for more positive action to address the problems of ERW. Unless international humanitarian law and the donors address ERW problems as crucial to post-conflict community reconstruction and development, ERW will remain a great threat to the world.

ERW and the Convention on Conventional Weapons

In December 2002, a new Protocol was agreed at a meeting of the CCW in Geneva. Protocol 5 has the following aims:

• reduce the risks of ERW. This includes negotiating responsibility for its clearance and providing risk education to the local population
• improve the reliability of munitions through voluntary best practices to minimise the humanitarian risk of munitions that might become ERW
• continue to implement existing international humanitarian law

So far, only Sweden has signed Protocol 5, which will not enter into force until 20 States Parties have ratified it.

Ladmine Action is calling on the UK government to:

• Ratify Protocol 5 of the Convention on Conventional Weapons and actively encourage other States Parties to do the same
• Increase its resources and commitment to ERW and to encourage other governments to help those individuals and communities that are affected by the lethal aftermath of war

Download a ERW factsheet.

What are........?

ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES

The Ottawa Treaty defines these as "mines designed to be exploded by the present, proximity or contact of a person, and that will capacitate, injure or kill one or more persons."

EXPLOSIVE REMNANTS OF WAR

The term ERW encompassses two types of ordnance: ordnance that fails to explode because of malfunction; and abandoned ordnance.

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CLUSTER MUNITIONS

These are a specific type of ERW, consisting of a container and a submunition, often called bomblets that explode and spread on impact.

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