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© Mary Wareham/HRW, September 2011
Casualties and Victim Assistance
The rationale behind the Convention on Cluster Munitions is found in its preamble, which affirms that States Parties
are “[d]etermined to put an end for all time to the suffering and casualties caused by cluster munitions.” This landmark
humanitarian disarmament agreement is the first and so far the only international treaty to make the provision of assistance
to victims of the weapons a formal requirement for all States Parties.
Documentation of casualties from cluster munition strikes as well as from cluster munition remnants remains
inadequate. 1 There are no comprehensive, reliable statistics and both civilian and military casualties are underreported.
The Monitor has managed to identify a total of 17,194 cluster munition casualties in 30 countries through the end of 2011,
yet a better indicator of the number of cluster munition casualties globally is the estimated total of between 20,000 and
54,000 casualties. However, the number of casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes is known to be grossly
underrepresented in both recorded casualties and estimates.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Cambodia, and Vietnam are considered to be the “worst affected” countries with
significant numbers of cluster munition victims. 2 While all states are encouraged to provide victim assistance resources
and support, the convention places ultimate responsibility for the provision of victim assistance on the countries with
cluster munition victims because it is their duty to protect and care for their own people.
Under Article 5 of the convention, States Parties have a legal obligation to ensure that the rights are met for members
of their population whose lives have been impacted by cluster munitions. In order to make a difference in affected
communities, there must be a clear understanding of the needs of victims and victim assistance responses must be
coordinated, focused, and measurable.
In the two years since the convention entered into force on 1 August 2010, States Parties have reported making more
efforts than ever before to improve the lives of cluster munition victims, demonstrating that the convention is making a
difference particularly in those countries most affected. While there has been progress on victim assistance during the
reporting period, it remains generally uneven due to lack of funding to the NGOs which deliver most services, and due to
inadequate infrastructure, conflict, and other challenges.
Cluster Munition Casualties
Global casualties
Casualties from cluster munition remnants have been recorded by at least 30 states and three other areas where cluster
munitions have been used, as listed in the following table. There have been unconfirmed casualties in several more states. 3
A football
match
between
cluster bomb
survivors,
campaigners
and diplomats
during the
Second
Meeting
of States
Parties to the
Convention
on Cluster
Munitions
in Beirut,
Lebanon.
1
The term “cluster munition remnants” includes explosive bomblets and unexploded submunitions, which account for the vast majority of
casualties. Unexploded submunitions are submunitions that have been dispersed and have landed, but failed to explode as intended, while
“explosive bomblets” have been dropped from a fixed-wing aircraft dispenser, but have failed to explode as intended.
2
“Draft Beirut Progress Report,” CCM/MSP/2011/WP.5, 25 August 2011, pp. 10-11. http://www.clusterconvention.org/files/2011/05/Beirut-
Progress-Report-ODS-upload4.pdf.
3
Cluster munition casualties have been reported in Angola, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Mozambique, and Yemen, but no definite data on
numbers of casualties is currently available. It is possible that cluster munition casualties have gone unrecorded in other countries where
cluster munitions were used, abandoned, or stored in the past, such as Azerbaijan, Colombia, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, and Zambia, as
well as the Falkland Islands/Malvinas.
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