Since its adoption in 2008, 123 nations have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The United States isn’t one of them.
The agreement bans the use, production, and transfer of these weapons, which kill indiscriminately and endanger civilians long after conflicts have ended. A report released in late August paints a stark picture of their impact. It found that in 2021, civilians accounted for 96% of cluster munition casualties. Two-thirds of them were children.
In 2021, civilians accounted for 96% of cluster munition casualties. Two-thirds of them were children.
The number of casualties has grown exponentially due to Russia’s use of cluster munitions in the war in Ukraine . In just the first six months of 2022, more than 4.5 times as many civilians have been killed by cluster munitions in Ukraine than were killed by these weapons worldwide in 2021. Reports confirm that at least 689 Ukrainian civilians died from cluster munitions between February and July 2022.
Cluster Bombs are Especially Dangerous to Civilians
The Convention on Cluster Munitions defines a cluster munition as “a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions each weighing less than [40 pounds].” It is these submunitions, also known as bomblets or bombies, that make cluster munitions so harmful to civilians.
Cluster munitions are, by design, indiscriminate weapons. They blanket a large area without specificity, scattering over an expanse the size of several football fields.
The United States has already contributed far too much to the damage and loss of life caused by cluster munitions. It’s time to ban these weapons outright.
While cluster munitions are typically designed to detonate mid-air, this mechanism often fails, causing the munitions to drop to the ground fully intact. This creates large swaths of land full of small, easily detonated bombs. As a result, cluster munitions kill and maim whoever is near their expansive and imprecise strike zones, both at the time of the attack and decades after. In Laos alone, it is estimated that 27 million unexploded bomblets dropped by the United States in the 1960s and 1970s remained after the conflict, resulting in nearly 20,000 casualties since the war ended.
The United States has already contributed far too much to the damage and loss of life caused by cluster munitions. It’s time to ban these weapons outright.
The U.S. Has Loosened Restrictions in Recent Years
Issued by President Trump in 2017, the current U.S. policy on cluster munitions loosened restrictions established by President George W. Bush. It allows the U.S. military to use any existing stockpiles of cluster munitions and to acquire additional munitions from other nations. The result? Just as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemns the Russian use of these weapons in Ukraine and the U.S. State Department leads the global effort to clear unexploded ordinances, the United States military is still authorizing their use by its own forces.
Most of the world’s nations, including 18 NATO member states, have banned these weapons and joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The United States should join this growing global consensus. President Joe Biden should immediately ban the use of cluster munitions by the U.S. military and work with Congress to urgently take the necessary steps to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
