Cluster bombs: an absolute ban, no middle ground

A 14-year-old cluster munition survivor is accompanied by friends in the Rashidiyeh camp for Palestinian refugees in Tyre, Lebanon on November 27, 2008. Israel blanketed south Lebanon with cluster munitions during its 2006 war with Hezbollah. The boy lost his legs because he accidentally detonated an unexploded cluster submunition that lingered after an attack.

Human Rights Watch:

Nations Should Reject Weak Alternative to Joining Treaty

(Geneva) - The Convention on Cluster Munitions is the only viable solution to ending the scourge of cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch said in a new book released today. As diplomats in Geneva opened discussions on a weak alternative, Human Rights Watch said that eliminating the harm caused by these inhumane weapons requires the absolute and comprehensive ban contained in the convention.

The 224-page book, Meeting the Challenge: Protecting Civilians through the Convention on Cluster Munitions, is the culmination of a decade of research by Human Rights Watch. It details the humanitarian toll of cluster munitions, analyzes the international process that resulted in the treaty successfully banning them, and presents the steps that nations that have signed the convention should take to fulfill its promise.

"The facts on the ground leave no doubt that cluster munitions inevitably kill and maim many civilians," said Bonnie Docherty, senior researcher in the arms division at Human Rights Watch. "Nations serious about stopping this suffering should join the ban convention and not settle for ineffective half-measures."

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