Cluster Munitions Treaty Announced

Miles A. Pomper

More than 100 countries agreed May 30 on a draft treaty to outlaw nearly all cluster munitions, after two weeks of final negotiations in Dublin, Ireland and more than a year of intensive discussions. Those endorsing the treaty included several close U.S. allies, most notably the United Kingdom. The United States and several other countries with the largest stockpiles of such weapons did not endorse the treaty.

Cluster munitions are bombs, rockets, and artillery shells that disperse smaller submunitions over broad areas. Sometimes those submunitions initially fail to explode, posing potentially lethal risks to anyone that might later disturb them. (See ACT, January/February 2008.)

In November 2006, Norway announced that it would lead an effort to limit cluster munitions after the United States, Russia, and some other countries party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) refused at that time to initiate negotiations on those weapons. The CCW subsequently initiated cluster munitions talks but with a narrower scope than those led by Norway.

The draft treaty requires the destruction of all forbidden cluster munitions within eight years and the clearance of all areas afflicted with unexploded cluster submunition remnants within 10 years. Extensions may be requested if these deadlines cannot be met. Future states-parties may only retain for combat cluster munitions that have five characteristics, such as self-destruct mechanisms, that diminish risks to noncombatants. The accord also includes measures for international assistance to victims of cluster munitions. Countries will be able to officially sign the treaty this December and then it will enter into force six months after 30 governments sign and ratify it.