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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on governments worldwide to reinforce the international ban on cluster munitions, following the release of the Cluster Munition Coalition’s (CMC) 2025 annual report. The organization urged states still using or producing these weapons to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.
Mark Hiznay, HRW’s associate director for crisis, conflict, and arms, emphasized the enduring threat posed by these weapons: “Civilians around the world continue to lose their lives and limbs to cluster munitions, even from weapons used decades ago.”
Cluster munitions scatter multiple submunitions over wide areas, often failing to detonate on impact. These remnants pose long-term risks to civilians, akin to landmines. The 2008 treaty prohibits their use, production, stockpiling, and transfer.
The CMC report highlights Lithuania’s unprecedented withdrawal from the convention in March, prompting condemnation from 47 nations. Meanwhile, non-signatory states—including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and Thailand—have continued to use cluster munitions in recent conflicts. The United States, also outside the treaty, reportedly transferred such weapons to Ukraine on at least seven occasions between mid-2023 and late 2024.
Despite these setbacks, the convention maintains strong compliance among its 112 member states. None have used cluster munitions since ratifying the treaty, and all have completed stockpile destruction, eliminating nearly 1.5 million munitions and 179 million submunitions by 2023.
Excerpts from jurist.org article by Ben Golin | U. Nevada School of Law, US
