UK bans cluster munitions

On the 25th March, the UK banned cluster munitions in an important step towards achieving a global ban on these indiscriminate weapons.

The UK Cluster Munition (Prohibition) Bill comes into force with immediate effect, banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. The writing of this legislation into UK law paves the way for the UK to ratify in the next few days the international Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will come into force on 1st August 2010.

Chris Bryant, Foreign Office Minister, stated: “It also means that other countries can’t stockpile their cluster munitions in the UK, so for instance the United States of America, by the end of 2013, will have no cluster munitions in the UK or in any of our overseas territories, including Diego Garcia. There won’t be any in the UK by the end of this year, and we are in the process of destroying our stockpile.”

Handicap International, which has been campaigning to ban cluster munitions for much of the last decade, welcomes this announcement. “It is an important step toward ending the appalling threat that cluster munitions pose to civilian populations” says Stephanie Stuart, Handicap International UK’s director. Cluster munitions have killed and injured thousands of civilians during the last 40 years and continue to do so today. The UK’s commitment to banning these weapons sends a strong message to the international community and helps to stigmatize those States who have yet to sign up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The UK is now on track to attend the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention, which will take place in November in Laos PDR. Laos is the country the most contaminated by cluster munitions in the world, due to the U.S. bombing more than 30 years ago, when tens of millions of cluster munitions were dropped.

“My country joined the ban treaty because our people have suffered the impact of these deadly ‘bombies' for decades,” said Phong, a cluster bomb survivor from Laos, who is a member of the Ban Advocates, an initiative for cluster munition survivors and affected communities. “We're looking forward to welcoming government representatives and campaigners to Vientiane later this year to show the world the immense and shocking legacy of cluster bomb use here.”

Handicap International has been working with victims of landmines and cluster munitions since the early 1980s, and has seen up close the enormous damage these weapons do to individuals, families and communities. The Convention should bring long-awaited recognition of the rights of the victims of cluster munitions and provide a mechanism to ensure the funding of assistance for the many thousands of people affected around the world. It should also prioritise the clearance of areas still contaminated by cluster munitions where people still live with the daily threat posed by these weapons.

About Handicap International
Handicap International works to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities in post-conflict or low-income countries around the world. Our activities include clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance, preventing mine-related accidents through education, assisting survivors with social and economic inclusion and advocating for the universal recognition of the rights of people with disabilities through national planning and advocacy. Handicap International is a co-founder of the Cluster Munition Coalition and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

About cluster bombs
A cluster munition is a weapon containing multiple - often hundreds - of small explosive submunitions. Cluster munitions are dropped from the air or fired from the ground and designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the submunitions over an area that can be the size of several football fields. This means they cannot discriminate between civilians and soldiers. Many submunitions fail to explode on impact and remain a threat to lives and livelihoods for decades.