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UNDP urges governments to sign convention banning cluster munitions

Photo:©Angela Catlin

Oslo - New York- Representatives of some 100 governments gathered in Oslo today to sign a historic disarmament convention aimed at closing the chapter on cluster munitions – an insidious weapon that kills innocent civilians and cripples communities for decades after hostilities have ceased. Also present at the conference were senior representatives of the United Nations, civil society groups and international organizations.

Adopted at a diplomatic conference in Dublin this May, the Convention on Cluster Munitions offers an unprecedented prohibition on the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. The Oslo Signing Conference is the culmination of diplomatic efforts that began in Oslo in February 2007. It represents the most significant humanitarian and disarmament treaty of the decade.

“We see an unprecedented opportunity for states to sign this treaty, clearing the world of a weapon that wages war on civilians,” said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Assistant Administrator Kathleen Cravero. “Today we come together, bridging a vast political divide, to protect future generations from billions of stockpiled cluster sub-munitions as well as explosive bomblets that still litter the earth.”

First used in World War II, cluster munitions have been used in at least 32 countries and territories. When launched, these weapons disperse large numbers of bomblets over an area the size of several football fields. Designed to explode upon impact, these sub-munitions often fail to do so, turning contaminated areas into de facto minefields.

The failure rate makes cluster munitions particularly dangerous for civilians, who continue to be maimed or killed for years and even decades after hostilities have ceased. Indeed, a startling 98 percent of cluster bomb victims are civilians; cluster bombs have claimed over 10,000 civilian lives – a staggering 40 per cent of whom are children.

In addition to claiming casualties, cluster munitions contaminate arable land, kill livestock and destroy shelters, presenting ongoing barriers to economic recovery and development. In Lao PDR, for example, clearance operations are still ongoing more than 30 years after conflict left 75 million unexploded cluster bomblets across the country. In Lebanon, cluster munitions rained down on more than 48 million square meters of land in July and August 2006, killing and injuring over 300 civilians.

As the UN development agency, UNDP’s mandate includes supporting countries recovering from war – including helping clear land that can be used once again for agricultural, grazing or other purposes. In the last ten years alone, the equivalent of more than 10,000 football fields have been cleared of cluster bomblets. Progress clearing contaminated lands continues, yet the billions of stockpiled cluster sub-munitions currently stockpiled in more than 75 countries represent a grave threat to future generations. If these stocks were to proliferate, including among non-state armed groups, and feed into ongoing and future armed conflicts, the consequences would be devastating.

This Convention – negotiated by States that represent past and current producers, stockpilers and victims of cluster munitions – represents a new milestone in humanitarian disarmament and establishes important commitments regarding assistance to victims, clearance of contaminated areas and destruction of stockpiles. It is the first successfully negotiated international treaty to ban an entire category of conventional weapons and is a significant strengthening of international humanitarian law.

“It is only fitting that we should gather here, where treaty negotiations began, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to protect future generations from this insidious weapon,” said Cravero. “Let us take advantage of this historic opportunity to make cluster munitions a weapon of the past.”