The Long and Winding Road Towards an Instrument on Cluster Munitions

Abstract

Cluster munition has been used for some decades. The issue of how to keep the cluster munition problem manageable has also been debated for a long time. At present, the establishment of an international instrument on cluster munitions is being discussed in two fora, namely in the context of the Conventional Weapons Convention and in what is known as the Oslo Process . These discussions, which have intensified following the use of cluster munitions by Israel in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006, are driven by the impact such munitions can have on the civilian population. Whereas formerly the debate tended to focus on the general problem of the explosive remnants of war (ERW) and current international humanitarian law was fairly generally regarded as adequate, the calls for an instrument specifically designed to deal with the issue of cluster munitions have suddenly become much more insistent since 2006. The article considers various questions. For example, how can the problem of cluster munitions be defined in a nutshell? What are cluster munitions? Is current international humanitarian law inadequate? How are the discussions on ERW in general and cluster munitions in particular being pursued? And why is an international legal instrument now being discussed in two fora? In short, the article is about a long and winding road towards an instrument on cluster munitions, or perhaps two instruments.