I. Limiting conventional arms for humanitarian reasons: the case of cluster munitions

Chapter:

10. Conventional arms control

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2012

Author(s):

Lina Grip, Mark Bromley, Glenn Mcdonald, Pieter D. Wezeman, Noel Kelly, Hans-Joachim Schmidt, Wolfgang Zellner

Several years of international negotiations on imposing greater controls on cluster bombs reached a climax in 2011 when states parties to the 1981 Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Convention convened to negotiate a draft protocol on cluster munitions in the convention’s Fourth Review Conference.¹ The weapon category ‘cluster munitions’ lacks an internationally agreed legal definition, but in general terms a cluster munition can be defined as a canister that breaks apart prior to detonation, releasing multiple individual sub-munitions. These weapons can be delivered from aircraft or land- or sea-based systems against moving or fixed targets—including people, vehicles or infrastructure such as airfield runways. The individual sub-munitions may be difficult or impossible to target precisely, and a certain proportion may not detonate immediately. There is a risk that the use of these weapons will fail to discriminate between military targets and protected civilians and that unexploded ordnance will continue to pose a threat beyond the duration of the conflict in which they were used. For these reasons there have been efforts to restrict or entirely prohibit cluster munitions.