The UN and Cluster Munitions

This image is a subsection of an updated network map of the network surrounding the effort to ban cluster munitions. This section of the map is showing the involvement of the UN and other international organizations. Based simply on the cluster map, programmes involved are: the UN Environmental Program, UN Development Program, UNICEF, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Development Fund for Women, and the UN Institute for Disarmament Research.

This list is long and comprehensive, but this list and map tells us little about the involvement and role of each agency. To further explore that, we turn to the UN participation page on the Cluster Munitions Convention website.

The Electronic Mine Information Network gives us timeline of UN involvement.

2003: The Interagency Standing Committee calls for a freeze in the US of cluster munitions
2005: UNMAS, UNDP, and UNICEF propose definitions for cluster munitions and issue calls for the limiting of cluster munition use. Kofi Annan calls upon the CCW states to consider cluster munitions.
2006: Kofi Annan calls for immediate regulation of and curbs in use of cluster munitions. Lebanon is used as an example of the humanitarian cost of cluster munitions by the Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
2007: The UN Mine Action Team makes several statements on cluster munitions and various humanitarian, legal, and technical issues at various conferences on cluster munitions. The Secretary-General releases a statement envisioning a ban on cluster munitions by 2008.
2008: The UN addresses the Dublin Conference, where the Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted. The UNMAT takes part in interoperability discussions.

The UN Institute for Disarmament Research conducts research studies on various weapons programs and disarmament efforts. To date they've conducted three studies on cluster munitions and the effort to ban them. The earliest report, on the humanitarian and development impact of cluster munitions, was conducted in 2005, well after the effort to ban these weapons were underway.

The UN Development Programme discusses cluster munitions, and provides examples of the impact they have on development.

The UN has been involved in efforts to ban cluster munitions since early in the campaign. Early calls for consideration of cluster munitions fall within the context of addressing Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons states. When these efforts stalled, the UN became involved in the Oslo process. The UN was in fact, a leader in calling for the Oslo Process. In an address to the the Third Review Conference on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Kofi Annan called for action to establish legal norms to eliminate cluster munitions. Early the next year, the UNDP congratulates Norway for responding to this call and establishing the Oslo Process.