The Impact of Cluster Munitions on Civilians and Conflict

14 October, 2024

By Sam Biden, Junior Fellow

The minimization of loss to civilian life and infrastructure has remained the primary objective of humanitarian law since the late 1940s. With restrictions and requirements covering areas from the treatment of prisoners of war to the judicial rights of war criminals, the development of safety precautions regarding weaponry has persistently been at the forefront. Careful regulations were made to ensure weapons with an innate tendency towards inflicting disproportionate, incontrollable or inhumane violence beyond that required to secure lawful military and security objectives remained unused by states. These regulations expanded to encompass specific systems including types of live ammunition, landmines and cluster munitions (CMs). 

Since 2008, the international community has rallied to disarm states of CMs, a lethal and somewhat unpredictable form of weaponry. The ICRC describes CMs as shell, missile or aircraft-delivered canisters containing submunitions often described as ‘bomblets’ that open in the air before impact, dispersing their payload. Containing as many as 600 explosive submunitions, some CMs can cause devastating effects even when dropped on a legitimate and intended target. While the initial target may indeed be hit, the erratic dispersion of the submunitions may not solely impact the target, damaging surrounding infrastructure and often involving direct and indirect civilian injuries and deaths. With no foolproof method of controlling these unguided submunitions once released, reliability regarding these forms of weapons remains bleak, with many claiming they operate under the category of indiscriminate, given their near-randomized impacts upon deployment.

With much of the international community in agreement, the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) was finalized in 2008, becoming effective in 2010. The CCM is very strict with CMs in general, banning the use, production, development, retaining and transfer of the weapon in their entirety. The CCM does distinguish between different kinds of CMs, with those weighing less than 4kg and containing no more than 10 submunitions being permitted, given the lower chance of collateral damage. Submunitions over 20kg are also excluded given there will inevitably be fewer of them per munition used. The CCM received widespread endorsement within the international community, gradually climbing to 112 parties with 12 signatories. Despite this, many countries decided against becoming a state party to the agreement, as once they do so, they are banned from using CMs entirely. This allows many countries to operate independently of the Convention, with little legal avenues to halt their use of CMs. Although only a small number of countries use CMs regularly, their impact has been devastating.

Monitoring Reports

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a subgroup of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), produces yearly reports on the continued use of CMs. Two key areas they cover annually are the casualties and contamination CMs cause. Reports highlighting statistics from 2020-2024 show a distressing reality.

• At the tail end of 2020, CMC reported 360 casualties attributed to CMs, taking place across eight countries, primarily Laos, Iraq, Syria and Vietnam, with over 1,000 deaths caused by CMs in each state since the monitoring program began in 1999. Behind these states, seventeen more had 100-1,000 casualties at the time of reporting, with Afghanistan, Russia and Lebanon being among the highest. A consistent issue with all reports to be discussed is the lack of data surrounding the true number of people killed, with the figures each year likely being much higher than reported.
• Heading into 2021, a total of 23,082 casualties caused by CMs were identified, though the actual figure was estimated to be closer to 56,000 at the time of reporting. Laos, Syria and Iraq remained among the most active states that helped accumulate this vast figure, accounting for 7,793, 4,318 and 3,134 respectively. Positively, only 149 casualties were recorded in the year, a 58.6% reduction, including no new reported casualties from the attacks themselves, only contamination instead.
• 2022 remains perhaps the most devastating year we’ve seen for the use of CMs in the 21st century. The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a sharp increase in CM employment, resulting in 24,274 total casualties by the close of 2022, nearly 1,200 more than the previous year. The actual estimated global figure reached 56,600. The spread of casualties remained consistent with Laos, Iraq and Syria having most casualties, yet were trumped by Ukraine’s toll, predicted to far exceed the three states. Civilians accounted for 94.5% of all casualties in 2022, with children representing 71% of casualties due to contamination and over 66% of casualties overall, a 22% increase from the year prior.
• Finally, the 2023 figures showed 219 more casualties across nine states, bringing the recorded total to 24,502. Similarly to 2022, Ukraine had the highest casualty toll for the second year running. An estimated 50 CM attacks occurred in Ukraine without any details on the casualty toll, leading the reporters to estimate the real casualty toll to be significantly higher.

Among the casualties come those who were injured or killed via contamination. This occurs when submunitions fail to detonate upon impact but later explode when interacted with, often by unsuspecting civilians. Many of the victims of contamination are innocent civilians who are unaware of the danger posed by these kinds of submunitions, with the countries who use the most CMs more often having greater contamination.

• Across five years of reporting, Laos remains the most contaminated country, with over 1,000km² of contamination. Cambodia and Iraq followed closely behind over the reporting period, with 100-1000km2 of contamination. Lower levels of contamination were found in 25 other states, ranging from an unknown level of contamination to rates as high as 99km2. By the end of 2021, Chile, Germany, Iraq and Lebanon successfully conducted surveys to determine their levels of contamination, with surveys in Laos, Afghanistan and Somalia being ongoing.
• A total of 82km² was cleared in 2019, falling to 63km2 in 2020. Laos cleared the most in the reporting period, destroying some 71,235 submunitions across over 54km2, followed by Iraq at 5.6km2 and Lebanon with nearly 1.6km2. The following year, a total of 61km² was cleared, a net decrease of 2km2 with over 80,000 submunitions being destroyed. Laos continued their proactive approach by clearing 47.8km2, followed by Iraq with 10.1km2. In 2022 we saw a huge rise in clearance with a total of 93.3km2 from seven states. Again, Laos cleared the most with 54.5km2, followed by Iraq at 33.6km2, with over 75,000 submunitions destroyed. Despite the positive trend, total clearance for 2023 failed to rise, falling to 83.9km2, with Laos and Iraq clearing 62km2 and 13.3km2 respectively.
• In 2020 alone, 147 cases of casualties due to contamination were found in South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. 2 years later, large increases in casualties were seen in Ukraine, Yemen and Iraq. In Yemen, a record 95 casualties due to contamination were found, despite the statewide truce in place at the time. Iraq saw 41 casualties from contamination during the same period, followed closely by Ukraine’s 26 casualties.
• Ukrainian territory saw the sharpest rise in the use of CMs with Russia making their position on CMs clear, stating they are entirely lawful when used discriminately, yet has continued to disregard their direct use during the ongoing war. Stockpiling CMs became a focal point for Russia in mid-2023 with the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine from the US, stating they have been stockpiling them and are prepared to use them if Ukraine decided to employ their use also. Ukraine is not innocent regarding the use of CMs, as they were potentially the first of the two parties to use them during an attack on Husarivka village in early March 2022. While they did not deny they used CMs during the attack, they did state that their participation in the ongoing war was in line with international law. Although, this does not directly absolve them of any wrongdoing, since they are not bound by the CCM as they are not signatories nor a party to the agreement, they technically do not violate the convention itself when using CMs, yet the outcome of their use may violate international law more broadly. Ukraine allegedly used CMs in an attack on Izium city between March and September of 2023, an area under the control of Russian forces, yet the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has denied the use of CMs during the attack.

Conclusion

The continual and worsening use of CMs has resulted in global devastation, presenting a significant challenge to international humanitarian law and civilian safety. Despite the adoption of the CCM, the refusal of key countries like Russia and Ukraine to ratify the treaty has allowed CMs to remain a persistent threat in ongoing conflicts. In September 2024, Lithuania announced that it was withdrawing from the CCM – a process which requires six months’ notice – due to the perceived threat to the country from CM-using Russia, Strong international efforts have been made to minimize their use and contamination, yet inconsistent progression since 2020 raises concerns for the future use of CMs. Unfortunately, until the CCM becomes a part of international custom, enforcement against the use of CMs in ongoing conflicts remains near impossible, continually putting strains on the international community and those who have to live with the munitions’ effects.

Image source:  Forest & Kim Starr via CC BY 3.0