Banning Cluster Bombs Moves One Step Closer

It's pretty hard to find a weapons system that is kind and merciful. But there's something particularly disgusting about cluster bombs. These nasty weapons, some about the size of a Diet Coke can, get launched from the ground or the sky and plaster indiscriminate areas of land. Some of them explode on contact, but a good many -- let's call them duds -- get lodged in fields, strung from telephone wires, or embedded in trees, waiting for some innocent bystander to accidentally touch them.

And then when that happens, they explode, wreaking havoc on the lives of children, farmers, and other civilians who were just going about their day until a de facto land mine blew off their legs. If they're lucky enough to have survived.

In late 2008, human rights organizations and diplomats around the world came together to launch the Convention on Cluster Munitions. That's a piece of international law that would essentially call for the end of these weapons -- much like the treaty that bans land mines. The Convention needed thirty signatures in order to enter into force.

And last week it got 'em, when Burkina Faso and Moldova ratified the Convention. As a result, come this August, a new piece of international law will go into effect making the use of cluster bombs illegal in the eyes of the global community.

Burkina Faso and Moldova may not be known as world powers, but their ratification of the Convention will do more to save civilian lives than most countries do in a decade.

What makes cluster bombs so brutal is the fact that they are so terribly unreliable. It's hard to aim them correctly, so they end up often missing targets, and a good percentage of them don't detonate on contact, meaning that they can get stuck in places for weeks, days, or even years at a time before detonating.

On top of that, they're a form of weapon that often claims children as victims. As UNICEF writes, "Children are too often the victims of cluster munitions, when they find these deadly weapons near their homes, on the way to school, or while at play with their friends."

Of course, while it's great that this Convention now enters the realm of international law, it's somewhat sad that only 30 countries have signed on. No United States. No United Kingdom. No Russia. No China. No Israel. No Australia.

Shouldn't eliminating a ruthless (and unnecessary) weapon like cluster munitions be at the top of every country's disarmament checklist?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons