Nobel Women's Initiative

What Are Cluster Munitions?

Like landmines, cluster munitions are weapons that claim victims indiscriminately during times of war and peace. These weapons have inhumane consequences for innocent civilians decades after conflicts end. Cluster munitions, or cluster bombs, are canister-like weapons that are dropped from planes and open in mid-air to scatter smaller submunitions or bomblets to the ground below. Each canister can drop anywhere from a dozen to 200 bomblets over an area the size of 2-3 football fields.

The mechanical function of cluster munitions is similar to antipersonnel landmines. They have trigger devices that when disturbed, trigger a deadly explosion. Unlike mines, the bomblets are designed to explode on impact, rather than being triggered by a victim stepping on the munition. However, cluster munitions' scariest threat is that they are extremely unreliable weapons. Twenty-five percent of cluster submunitions are estimated to fail to explode on impact. This means the bomblets are left lying on the ground and with the slightest disturbance, like a child's touch or even a gust of wind, explode to kill or maim their victim.

 

Ninety-eight percent of the 13,306 recorded cluster munitions casualties registered with Handicap International are civilian casualties.

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Who Uses Cluster Munitions?

Cluster munitions are standard fare in the arsenals of many state and non-state actors around the world. They are a daily threat to civilians in dozens of countries, especially Vietnam and Kosovo, where past American and NATO bombing has left thousands of unexploded bomblets behind. They were used again in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, where their brightly colored exteriors lure children, who think the bomblets are toys. During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict, it was reported that Israel fired 4 million cluster munitions across Lebanon. After the conflict ended, UN experts estimated as many as one million unexploded bomblets lay waiting across hundreds of strike sites in southern Lebanon. Recognizing the potential aftermath, the Nobel Women's Initiative sent out an urgent call for Israel to cease its use of cluster munitions on Lebanese targets.  Read Ban the Bomblets, by the women of the Nobel Women's Initiative.

Though there is currently no international legislation to terminate the use of cluster munitions, a joint civil society and government campaign is currently underway to ban the weapon.

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What is Being done to Ban Cluster Munitions?

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) began a process to ban the weapon in November 2006 in Geneva. A major breakthrough was achieved in February 2007 when the government of Norway initiated a treaty development process known as the "Oslo Process". (The Oslo Process is modeled after the "Ottawa Process"- a treaty negotiation process that happened outside official UN channels to rapidly negotiate an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines in 1997.) The Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions gained widespread support for establishing this treaty process, which has the aim of developing, negotiating, and concluding a new international treaty rejecting the use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.  Of 49 countries attending the Oslo Conference, 46 pledged their support to the Oslo Process.

By late 2007, the Oslo Process had gained the support of more than 90 states-  including over half of the world's stockpilers and half of its producers of clusters.  This was the result of eight month's work by key supporters of the process, anchored by a series of regional and international conferences in Europe, Central and South America. Additional meetings are planned in 2008, with the goal of concluding a comprehensive treaty banning clusters by the end of 2008.

The Nobel Women's Initiative actively supports the work of the Cluster Munition Coalition as it leads a growing international humanitarian movement to ban yet another inhumane and unnecessary weapon.

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What You Can Do to Join the Movement to Ban Clusters:

Some of the world's most strident stockpilers and users of cluster munitions remain outside the treaty process to ban clusters. To find out where your country stands visit our Take Action page.

Visit Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's (WILPF) cluster munitions page for an analysis of gender and cluster munitions. Despite the recognition of the importance of gender in experiences with landmines, little attention has been given to gender in the process to ban cluster munitions.

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For more information visit:

• Cluster Munition Coalition

• Get the Make History Happen Toolkit, your action toolkit to ban cluster munitions, including fact sheets, presentations, video clips and more!

• Read the Oslo Declaration (additional states, not listed on the Oslo Declaration, now support the Declaration. As of December 2007 more than 90 states were participating in the Oslo process.)

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Read Jody William's report: Cluster Success in Norway

Read the latest News on disarmament.

Take Action for disarmament.

(Some information on this page was taken from Handicap International and Mines Action Canada.)