NGO Involvement in the Cluster Munitions Ban

In 2003, the Stop Cluster Munitions coalition was formed with the support of a number of gatekeeper NGOs, including Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Five years later, after a successful campaign, cluster bombs are on the verge of being banned.

Prior to 2003, one finds that individual NGOs were calling for this weapons ban as early as the mid 90s. Using LexisNexis Academic as a guide, we can construct a rough timeline of NGO involvement in this issue.

The earliest mention of an NGO involvement that I've discovered thus far is in a February 1995 letter to the editor in the New York Times. In it the author states:

From April to October 1994, I assisted the Mennonite Central Committee and the British Mines Advisory Group in beginning a bomb removal project in Laos. The 580,000 bombing missions the United States flew during its 1964-73 secret air war left thousands of cluster bombs behind that failed to explode as designed. No general clearance of ordnance was conducted after the war, so these bombs continue to maim and kill 20 to 30 years after they were dropped.¹

The author then goes on to call for a ban on cluster munitions to be included in a land mine ban. While the NGOs mentioned are not calling for a ban, they are involved and aware of the issue. Later that year, Mines Advisory Group would be calling for a ban on cluster munitions, evidenced in a June 1995 quote in The Guardian:

Reuter: A British-made cluster bomb used against Iraqi forces in the Gulf war should be banned because of the danger posed by its mine-like bomblets, Rae McGrath, director of the mines advisory group, said in Phnom Penh yesterday.²

What happens next isn't clear. There are articles from the late 1990s discussing cluster munitions and the impact they've had on civilians in the years after the Vietnam and Kosovo conflicts³, but no references to specific NGOs.

In 2001, the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was calling for a ban on cluster bombs⁴. In 2002, Human Rights Watch was urging the US Administration to suspend the use of cluster munitions in future conflicts⁵. In 2003, the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and Landmine Action launched a petition calling for a ban on cluster munitions. At this point they were already part of what was described as a "coalition of anti-landmine charities.⁶"

In 2003, the Stop Cluster Munitions Coalition took point on the cluster munitions issue. They began a campaign urging governments to ban cluster munitions. Similar to the path taken on the drive to ban land mines, after being frustrated in efforts to have them banned under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, a multilateral effort known as the Oslo process. With the success of that process in achieving the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the group is now taking the campaign to governments, urging them to sign the Convention in December 2008 and highlighting continued use of cluster munitions in the world.


¹"Clinton Land Mine Policy Falls Short; Include Cluster Bombs." New York TImes. Date: 15 February 1995 Section A; Page 20; Column 5; Editorial Desk. LexisNexis. 29 September 2008
²"Call to Ban Bomb." The Guardian. Date: 3 June 1995. The Guardian Foreign Page; Pg 14. LexisNexis. 29 September 2008
³Fleishman, Jeffrey. "In Peacetime Kosovo, Bomb Casualties Continue" The Philadelphia Inquirer
⁴"Diana charity calls for end to cluster bombs." Courier Mail. Date: 26 October 2001. World, Pg. 10 LexisNexis. 29 September 2008
⁵Donnelly, John "US Urged to Ban Cluster Bombs Rights Group Cites Danger to Civilians" The Boston Globe. Date: 18 December 2002. National/Foreign, Pg A27. LexisNexis. 29 September 2008
⁶"Threat of war: Anti-mine group calls for ban on cluster bombs." The Guardian. Date: 28 February 2003. The Guardian Home Pages, Pg. 7. LexisNexis. 29 September 2008