Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 Editorial Board Mines Action Canada • Action on Armed Violence • Handicap International Human Rights Watch • Norwegian People’s Aid © October 2011 by Mines Action Canada All rights reserved Printed and bound in Canada ISBN: 978-0-9738955-9-9 Cover photograph © André Liohn/Human Rights Watch, April 2011 Cover design by Rafael Jiménez Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor provides research and monitoring for the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)and is a formal program of the ICBL-CMC. For more information visit www.the-monitor.org or email [email protected]. Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor makes every effort to limit the environmental footprint of reports. This report is printed on paper containing post-consumer recycled waste fiber. 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If you have unused print copies of this report, please share them with others, donate them to a local library, or recycle them. Cluster Munition Coalition The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions and prevent further casualties from these weapons. The CMC works through its members to change the policy and practice of governments and organizations and raise awareness of the devastation that cluster munitions cause. The CMC calls for: • A total ban on the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions; • Accelerated clearance and destruction of all cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war; • Fulfillment of the rights and needs of all cluster munition victims; and • Universal adherence to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions and its full implementation by all. i © Alma Taslidzan/HI, 8 October 2010 Alma Taslidzan/HI, © Preface Cluster Munitions Cluster munitions have been banned by the majority of the world’s nations because of the grave dangers that they pose to Stockpiled civilian populations—due to the very nature of the weapon. cluster munitions are Cluster munitions consist of containers and submunitions. Launched from the ground or dropped from the air, the prepared for containers open and disperse submunitions indiscriminately over a wide area. Many fail to explode on impact, but remain destruction in dangerous, functioning like de facto antipersonnel landmines. Thus, cluster munitions put civilians at risk both during Bosnia and attacks due to their wide area effect and after attacks due to unexploded ordnance. Herzegovina. Cluster munitions have been used in at least three dozen countries and have killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians. Typically scattered in very large numbers, they not only cause civilian victims during and after attacks, but can have a lasting socio-economic impact for months, years, or decades. Cluster munitions can deny access to food, water, and other basic needs, and inhibit freedom of movement. They can prevent the repatriation of refugees and internally displaced people, and hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid. When countries must spend money clearing cluster munitions and helping victims rather than funding other pressing needs, these weapons not only cause appalling human suffering, they can also present a lethal barrier to development and post- conflict reconstruction. However, the humanitarian harm caused by cluster munitions to date is far less than that caused by antipersonnel mines, which have been used much more widely and in many more conflicts than cluster munitions. In fact, the effort to ban cluster munitions has, with some notable exceptions, been largely preventive in nature. Before the ban movement began, at least 86 nations stockpiled millions of cluster munitions containing hundreds of millions—probably even billions—of submunitions. Given the predictable harm caused whenever cluster munitions are used, this was, simply put, a staggering human-made disaster in waiting. The solution to the future threat and existing problem caused by cluster munitions now exists. The Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force on 1 August 2010. It is a legally-binding international agreement banning cluster munitions because of their indiscriminate area effects and risk of unexploded ordnance. The convention also provides a framework for tackling the existing problems that cluster munitions have caused. The convention obliges States Parties to stop the use, production, and transfer of cluster munitions immediately. States must destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions within eight years of becoming party to the convention, and clear all cluster munition remnants in areas under their jurisdiction or control within 10 years. The Convention on Cluster Munitions includes far-reaching provisions on victim assistance, and includes those killed or injured by submunitions, their families and affected communities in the definition of a cluster munition victim. These provisions set a new standard in international law. In addition, States Parties in a position to do so must provide assistance for the clearance of unexploded submunitions and other cluster munition remnants, for risk education programs to help prevent cluster munition casualties, for assistance to victims, and for stockpile destruction. The Convention on Cluster Munitions provides a framework for taking action, but it must be universalized and effectively implemented. Just as they did in creating the convention, governments, the CMC, the ICRC, UN agencies, and all other partners must continue to work together to ensure the success of the effort to eradicate cluster munitions. Cluster Munition Coalition The CMC is an international coalition working to protect civilians from the effects of cluster munitions by promoting universal adherence to and full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The CMC has a membership of around 350 civil society organizations from close to 100 countries, and includes organizations working on disarmament, peace and security, human rights, victim assistance, clearance, women’s rights, and faith issues. The CMC facilitates the efforts of NGOs worldwide to educate governments, the public, and the media about the global cluster munition problem and its solutions. iii Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 On 1 January 2011, the CMC merged with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) to become the ICBL- CMC. The CMC and ICBL remain two distinct and strong campaigns with a dedicated team of staff for both. For the last few years the ICBL, CMC, and the Monitor have increasingly been sharing resources to achieve their similar goals: to rid the world of landmines and cluster munitions. Work towards these goals has been strengthened with the merger, while still ensuring the three components (CMC, ICBL, and the Monitor) continue to be the global authorities in their distinct areas of work. Like the ICBL, the CMC was established by a group of NGOs in response to a global problem, in this case the suffering caused by cluster munitions. From 2003 to 2006 the CMC called for negotiations to establish new international law to address the cluster munition problem. Throughout 2007 and 2008, the CMC actively participated in the diplomatic Oslo Process, facilitating and leading the global civil society action in favor of a ban on cluster munitions. This effort was crucial to the adoption and signature of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008. Since 2009, the CMC has engaged in an intensive global universalization campaign, first to ensure prompt entry into force of the convention, and since entry into force in August 2010, to increase the number of States Parties. In 2011, the CMC pressed for early implementation of the convention in its first year, and increased momentum in the campaign during preparations for the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September. Representatives from more than 130 governments came to Beirut to participate in the conference, including from 40 countries still outside the ban. Landmine and Cluster Monition Monitor Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor provides research and monitoring for the CMC and the ICBL and is formally a program of the ICBL-CMC. It is the de facto monitoring regime for the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It monitors and reports on States Parties’ implementation of, and compliance with, the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and more generally, it assesses the international community’s response to the humanitarian problems caused by landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive