cluster munition

As war in Ukraine intensifies, five European countries – Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Poland – withdrew this year from the Ottawa Convention banning landmines and the Convention on Cluster Munitions – a move that is deeply concerning Tamar Gabelnick.

As Director of both the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the Cluster Munition Coalition, she was in New York urging action to defend the conventions last week as world leaders addressed the General Assembly.

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Hello, first we heard that cluster bombs had been used in residential areas of Ukraine, now there are reports that civilians have been run over by tanks while trying to flee Russian troops in Bucha. We’ll hear more from the UN rights office on what steps it’s taking to verify those claims, on a day when the General Assembly decided to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council.

Four countries have completely destroyed their stockpiles of cluster munitions since 2017, and Switzerland may soon be able to say that it has done the same.

The head of the UN’s agency tasked with delivering a mine-free world has warned of the spiralling dangers for civilians and humanitarian workers in conflicts around the world.

Agnès Marcaillou, who’s the director of the United Nations Mine Action Service, or UNMAS, said that there is an intensity of fighting “that we have not faced before” .