Cluster Bomb Ban bears fruit

When a cluster bomb detonates, hundreds of “bomblets” are scattered over wide areas. Many of them fail to detonate initially, causing devastating harm for farmers, children and other civilians who come across them. Due to the harm these weapons cause for civilians both during and after a war, and international convention to ban them was signed in 2008. 107 states joined the treaty, and ten years after its entry into force, it has saved many lives, limbs, and livelihoods. According to a newly published report, Cluster Munition Monitor 2020, state parties to the treaty have destroyed 99 per cent of their cluster munitions stocks, A total of 1.5 million cluster bombs have been destroyed over the last ten years. None of the 107 state parties have produced or used cluster bombs since the treaty became effective in 2010.

Lives are still lost

During the same period, cluster munition remnants have been removed at a high speed. Six state parties have completed clearance of areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants, most recently Croatia and Montenegro in July 2020.

Even though significant progress has been made because of the Convention, cluster bombs still cost hundreds of lives each year. 4,300 people have been killed by these devices over the last decade. 286 casualties were reported in 2019, most of them in Syria. The researchers have also reported deadly use of cluster weapons in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

“The sustained use of banned cluster munitions in Syria and new use in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh is unacceptable”, said the editor of the report Marion Loddo. “It is imperative that states that have joined this convention speak out to condemn the civilian death toll and the threat to lives and livelihoods from new cluster remnant contamination.”