On 12 November 2009, the Republic of Iraq became the 103rd nation to sign the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. As a country that suffers civilian casualties due to its cluster munition contamination, Iraq’s signature has been a key priority for campaigners seeking to universalize the agreement, which was negotiated and opened for signature in 2008.

According to the annual Landmine Monitor report released in Geneva on 12 November, Iraq is “massively affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war.” During the First Gulf War alone, US-led forces dropped 15 million cluster submunitions. The 2003 invasion resulted in extensive further contamination along the routes followed in the advance on Baghdad as US and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 to 2 million cluster submunitions. As a result, south-central Iraq is particularly affected by cluster munition remnants and unexploded air and ground ordnance.

In 2007-2008, Iraq participated in the “Oslo Process” to ban cluster munitions and was an observer at Dublin negotiations and Oslo signing conference. In March 2009, during a special event on the Convention at the UN in New York, Iraq stated that the Cabinet had approved signature and that the necessary legal procedures were underway to sign the Convention.

Iraq joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in August 2007. The United States, which invaded Iraq in 1991 and 2003 using cluster munitions and other weapons, has still not joined either the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Cluster Munitions. This week in Geneva, a senior US State Department official disappointingly said the US has “determined that their national security interests cannot be fully ensured consistent with the terms of the [Convention].”

Over the past couple of months, four other countries have signed the Convention: Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. A total of 24 of the Convention’s 103 signatories have ratified, bringing the cluster bomb ban closer to international law. Thirty ratifications are required to trigger the agreement’s entry into force. In New Zealand, proposed implementing legislation is awaiting parliamentary approval. Once the law is enacted, hopefully before the end of 2009, New Zealand will be able to ratify the Convention.

This photo taken by Mary Wareham shows the director of the Iraqi Handicapped Survivors Society, Mr Muoffak Al Khafaj, at a demostration outside the US Embassy in Dublin in May 2008.   Al Khafaj together with other Iraqi survivors of cluster munitions bombs fought hard and successfully for a strong treaty banning the weapon.

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