Cluster Munitions and International Humanitarian Law

The States Parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) have long recognized the dangers of cluster munitions. They first questioned the civilian harm these weapons cause at the Lucerne Conference in 1974 that eventually led to the CCW. Over the past several years, the Group of Governmental Experts has addressed cluster munitions as part of the ongoing discussions on explosive remnants of war (ERW). For 2004, the ERW working group has a mandate “to continue to consider the implementation of existing principles of international humanitarian law” (IHL).