A B1 bomber dropping hundred of undirected ‘dumb’ bombs that indiscriminately destroy. maim and kill civilians.

 A cluster bomb, or cluster munition, is a weapon containing multiple explosive submunitions. These containers are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground and designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the submunitions and saturating an area that can be the size of several football fields. Anybody within that area, be they military of civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured. As so many of the submunitions fail to work properly, huge quantities are left on the ground and, like landmines, remain a fatal threat to anyone in the area long after a conflict ends. These weapons kill and injure people trying to rebuild their lives after conflict. They stop people from being able to use their land and access hospitals and schools. They can remain a threat for decades.WHY IS A BAN ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS NECESSARY? Simply put, cluster munitions kill and injure too many civilians. The weapon caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system. Cluster munitions stand out as the weapon that poses the gravest dangers to civilians since antipersonnel mines, which were banned in 1997. Israel’s massive use of the weapon in Lebanon in August 2006 resulted in more than 200 civilian casualties in the year following the ceasefire and served as the catalyst for governments to seek to create a legally binding international instrument tackling cluster munitions in 2008.The Problem: Cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians during their history of use and continue to do so today. They cause widespread harm on impact and yet remain dangerous, killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of cluster bomb casualties are injured while undertaking their normal activities.

 WHAT ARE CLUSTER BOMBS? Cluster bombs or cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and from the ground and release dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions. Submunitions released by air-dropped cluster bombs are most often called “bomblets,” while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually referred to as “grenades.”

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH THIS WEAPON? Air-dropped or ground-launched, they cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas. Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended. These duds are more lethal than antipersonnel mines; incidents involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury.

cluster bomb detonation near school in Laos

AFFECTED COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES: 24 countries and 3 other territories are believed to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia (South Ossetia), Germany, Iraq, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Montenegro, Norway, Russia (Chechnya), Serbia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan and Vietnam, as well as Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh and Western Sahara. Of this list, the most heavily affected states are Lao PDR and Vietnam (massive contamination), followed by Iraq and Cambodia (very large contamination.)

Another 14 countries may have a small amount of contamination: Angola, Argentina (Falkland Islands/Malvinas), Colombia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Mozambique, Palau, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom (Falkland Islands/Malvinas) and Yemen.

USERS OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS:                                                                          At least 19 government armed forces have used cluster munitions: Colombia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Iraq,  Israel, Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Former Yugoslavia (Serbia), Sudan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States. Of this number, the following seven countries have now signed or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, formally renouncing any future use of the weapon: Colombia, France, Iraq, Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, United Kingdom.

 PRODUCERS OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS: 34 countries have produced cluster munitions. Of this number, 17 are still believed to produce cluster munitions or reserve the right to do so. The other 17 have stopped producing the weapon prior to or as a result of joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Cluster munition producers: Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Turkey, United States.

 Former cluster munition producers: Argentina*, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. * Argentina has not joined the Convention on Cluster Munition but has renounced future production.

STOCKPILERS OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS: 91 countries have stockpiled cluster munitions. Of this number, 20 marked with an asterisk (*) have now destroyed all their stockpiles. More than a dozen others are in the process of destroying them.

Afghanistan*, Algeria, Angola, Argentina*, Austria*, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium*, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic*, Chile, China, Colombia*, Republic of Congo*, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic*, Denmark, Ecuador*, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Honduras*, Hungary*, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq*, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Macedonia FYR, Mauritania*, Moldova*, Mongolia, Montenegro*, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands*, Nigeria, Norway*, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal*, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia*, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

* States marked with an asterisk have now completed stockpile destruction.

 WHAT IS THE OSLO PROCESS? In February 2007, 46 governments met in Oslo to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude a new legally binding instrument in 2008. The Convention prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, and requires states to destroy existing stockpiles of the weapons, clear contaminated areas and assist survivors and affected communities. Subsequent international Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007), Austria (December 2007), and New Zealand (February 2008). Some 107 countries negotiated and adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. The convention was signed by 94 countries at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 and entered into force as binding international law on 1 August 2010, after it reached the threshold of 30 ratifications in February 2010, just 15 months after it opened for signature. All countries can still accede to the convention at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

WHAT IS THE CLUSTER MUNITION COALITION? The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is a global network of more than 350 civil society organizations working in some 90 countries to end the harm caused by cluster bombs. The CMC was launched in November 2003 and founding members include Human Rights Watch, Handicap International and other leaders from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which secured the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Since the signing of the Convention on Cluster Munitions by 94 countries at the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008, the CMC mobilized an intensive global ratification campaign to ensure that 30 countries ratified the Convention swiftly. This happened on 16 February 2010, less than two years after the treaty was formally adopted. The CMC now works for all states to come on board the Convention and to fully implement all its provisions.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? READ real life stories from people around the world who have had contact with cluster munitions.

Real-Life Stories and images can be found at the Image Gallery on Cluster Munitions.

To read more about the experiences of survivors of cluster munitions and their work to achieve a ban, visit the Ban Advocates web site.

112 countries have joined the Convention and 81 are States Parties:

Cluster Munition Monitor

The Cluster Munition Monitor was first released in 2010 and builds upon the 2009 report Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice, which was researched and written by Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action (now known as Action On Armed Violence), and published by the Monitor. Cluster Munition Monitor provides a global overview of developments in cluster munition ban policy, use, production, trade, and stockpiling for every country in the world, and also includes information on cluster munition contamination, casualties, clearance, and victim assistance.

CLUSTER BOMB FACTS

• Cluster munitions severely disrupt the lives and livelihoods of 400 million people worldwide
• 98 percent of cluster bomb casualties are civilians and 27 percent are children
• One cluster bomb contains hundreds of bomblets (or submunitions) and typically scatters them across an area the size of 2-4 football fields
• Bomblets are small, often the size of a ‘D’ battery or a tennis ball and have a failure rate of up to 30 percent; unexploded bomblets become de facto landmines
• At least 72 countries around the world stockpile cluster munitions and 34 are known to have produced more than 210 types of cluster munitions
• Cluster bombs impede economic development, restrict access to water and deprive children of safe access to education
• Cluster munitions have been used in at least 39 countries and territories
• The global stockpile of cluster bomb submunitions totals approximately 4 billion, with a quarter of these in U.S. hands
• Unexploded bomblets were responsible for the death of nearly 10% of the U.S. fatalities in the Gulf War
• The United States dropped 19 million in Cambodia, 70 million in Vietnam and 208 million in Laos
• The U.S. executed over 580,000 bombing missions over Laos, dropping, on average, an entire planeload of bombs every eight minutes, around the clock, for nine years.
• The most cluster contaminated areas are in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Kosovo and Vietnam.

For more information on The Convention on Cluster Munitions go to www.stopclustermunitions.org.

Cluster bombs unexploded in casing. 76 milion of these individual Bombies remain unexploded in Laos. This is a mother pod that failed to spring open and cast it’s deadly cargo.

They cause widespread harm on impact and yet remain dangerous, killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of cluster bomb casualties are injured while undertaking their normal activities. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international coalition working to protect civilians from the effects of cluster munitions by promoting universal adherence to and full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The CMC has a membership of around 300 civil society organizations from more than 80 countries, and includes organizations working on disarmament, peace and security, human rights, victim/survivor assistance, clearance, women’s rights, faith issues and other areas of work. The CMC facilitates the efforts of NGOs worldwide to educate governments, the public and the media about the problems of cluster munitions and the solution through the global treaty banning the weapon”. (*CMC:www.stopclustermunitions.org)