Cluster munitions: Decades of failure, decades of civilian suffering

ICRC Publication 2008 ref. 0946

Cluster munitions can contain up to 650 explosive submunitions. These are scattered over a wide area and many of them fail to explode as intended. As a result, they have caused death, injury and suffering among civilians in nearly every conflict in which they have been used.

ICRC, 2008, information kit including a DVD film, a brochure and information fact sheets, English, French, Spanish / ref. 0946

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With billions of inaccurate and unreliable cluster submunitions in stockpiles around the world, the cluster munition problem has the potential to become far worse than it is today.

To prevent this, the ICRC is calling on States to urgently conclude a new treaty that will prohibit inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions, require the elimination of current stocks, and provide for the clearance of unexploded cluster munitions and assistance to victims.

The cluster munitions information kit includes :

DVD: Cluster munitions: time to act

Brochure: Cluster munitions: decades of failure, decades of civilian suffering

Five factsheets: Cluster munitions: Why we need to limit them