September, 09 2024, 09:39am EDT
Cluster Munitions: New Use, Transfers Test International Ban
Global Report Tracks Civilian Harm from Prohibited Weapon
The international treaty banning cluster munitions is making demonstrable progress, but is being tested by new use and transfers of cluster munitions by countries that have not joined it, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing an annual monitoring report on cluster munitions.
The 100-page report, “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024,” details the policy and practice of all countries with respect to the international treaty that prohibits cluster munitions and requires destruction of stockpiles, clearance of areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants, and victim assistance.
“The Convention on Cluster Munitions provides a vital framework for ending the immediate and long-term harm and suffering caused by these abhorrent weapons,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict, and arms director at Human Rights Watch, and editor of “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024.” “All countries should join and adhere to the convention if they are serious about protecting civilians from these weapons in the face of rising conflict.”
Cluster munitions can be fired from the ground by artillery, rockets, missiles, or mortars, or dropped by aircraft. They typically open in the air, dispersing multiple submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Many submunitions fail to explode on initial impact, leaving unexploded duds that can indiscriminately injure and kill like landmines for years, until they are found and destroyed.
During 2023 – the latest year covered by the report’s casualty statistics – 93 percent of cluster munition casualties recorded by the Monitor were civilians. Children made up 47 percent of those killed and injured by cluster munition remnants in 2023.
Cluster munitions were used in Ukraine by Russian and Ukrainian forces in 2023 and through July 2024, while new use was also recorded in Myanmar and Syria.
Russia has used stocks of old cluster munitions and newly developed models in Ukraine since 2022. Between July 2023 and April 2024, US President Joe Biden approved five transfers to Ukraine of US cluster munitions delivered by 155mm artillery projectiles and by ballistic missiles.
None of these countries are party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has 112 members.
Click to expand Image The "Cluster Munition Monitor 2024" cover depicts AO-1SCh submunitions prepared for destruction in Pisco, Peru. © Santiago Ocampo/Norwegian People’s AidThere have been no confirmed reports or allegations of new use, production, or transfers of cluster munitions by any state party since the convention was adopted in Dublin, Ireland on May 30, 2008.
However, new use and transfers by states that have not signed the convention are testing its norms and universality. And the convention’s provision banning any assistance with prohibited activities is being put to the test, raising interpretive issues and questions over compliance with national laws.
A July 2024 report shows that cluster munitions stored at a US military base in Germany, which has ratified the convention, have been transferred to Ukraine since July 2023, transiting across Germany in the process. The US removed its stockpiled cluster munitions from Norway and the UK during 2010, but it may still hold stocks at its military bases in member countries such as Italy, Netherlands, and Spain.
All members of the convention should be clear in opposing foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions and the transit of cluster munitions across their territory, airspace, or waters, Human Rights Watch said.
In December 2023, the convention reached a major milestone when Peru completed the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions, as it was the last state party with declared stocks to complete this obligation. Bulgaria, Slovakia, and South Africa announced the completion of the destruction of their respective cluster munition stocks in September 2023. These developments mean that member countries have collectively now destroyed 100 percent of their declared cluster munition stocks, destroying 1.49 million cluster munitions and 179 million submunitions.
According to “Cluster Munition Monitor 2024,” 28 countries and other areas are contaminated or suspected to be contaminated by cluster munition remnants. Cluster munition attacks caused civilian casualties in Myanmar, Syria, and Ukraine in 2023; while people were killed or injured by cluster munition remnants in these countries and in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mauritania, and Yemen.
Member states altogether cleared more than 83 square kilometers of affected land in 2023, destroying at least 73,348 unexploded submunitions and other cluster munition remnants. Bosnia and Herzegovina completed clearance of cluster munition remnants in August 2023, becoming the ninth state party to meet its clearance obligations under the convention.
In an alarming development, however, Lithuania enacted a law in July 2024 approving its withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The withdrawal will take effect six months after the United Nations and the convention’s member states are notified, unless Lithuania retracts this measure or goes to war.
“Lithuania’s ill-considered move to leave the Convention on Cluster Munitions stains its otherwise excellent reputation on humanitarian disarmament and ignores the risks of civilian harm,” Wareham said. “It’s not too late for Lithuania to heed calls to stop its planned withdrawal.”
“Cluster Munition Monitor 2024” is the 15th annual monitoring report by the Cluster Munition Coalition, the global coalition of nongovernmental organizations co-founded by Human Rights Watch. The report will be presented to countries attending the 12th meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions at the United Nations in Geneva on September 10-13.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Social Security Administration 'In Turmoil' as New Reporting Details Damage Done by Trump Cuts
In-depth reporting from the Washington Post found the Social Security Administration is dealing with "record backlogs that have delayed basic services to millions of customers."
Dec 30, 2025
An in-depth report published by the Washington Post on Tuesday offers new details about the damage being done to the Social Security Administration during President Donald Trump's second term.
The Post, citing both internal documents and interviews with insiders, reported that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is "in turmoil" one year into Trump's second term, resulting in a customer service system that has "deteriorated."
The chaos at the SSA started in February when the Trump administration announced plans to lay off 7,000 SSA employees, or roughly 12% of the total workforce.
This set off a cascade of events that the Post writes has left the agency with "record backlogs that have delayed basic services to millions of customers," as the remaining SSA workforce has "struggled to respond to up to 6 million pending cases in its processing centers and 12 million transactions in its field offices."
The most immediate consequence of the staffing cuts was that call wait times for Social Security beneficiaries surged to an average of roughly two-and-a-half hours, which forced the agency to pull workers employed in other divisions in the department off their jobs.
However, the Post's sources said these employees "were thrown in with minimal training... and found themselves unable to answer much beyond basic questions."
One longtime SSA employee told the Post that management at the agency "offered minimal training and basically threw [transferred employees] in to sink or swim."
Although the administration has succeeded in getting call hold times down from their peaks, shuffling so many employees out of their original positions has damaged the SSA in other areas, the Post revealed.
Jordan Harwell, a Montana field office employee who is president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 4012, said that workers in his office no longer have the same time they used to have to process pay stubs, disability claims, and appointment requests because they are constantly manning the phones.
An anonymous employee in an Indiana field office told the Post that she has similarly had to let other work pile up as the administration has emphasized answering phones over everything else.
Among other things, reported the Post, she now has less time to handle "calls from people asking about decisions in their cases, claims filed online, and anyone who tries to submit forms to Social Security—like proof of marriage—through snail mail."
Also hampering the SSA's work have been new regulations put in place by Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that bar beneficiaries from making changes to their direct deposit information over the phone, instead requiring them to either appear in person at a field office or go online.
The Indiana SSA worker told the Post of a recent case involving a 75-year-old man who recently suffered a major stroke that left him unable to drive to the local field office to verify information needed to change his banking information. The man also said he did not have access to a computer to help him change the information online.
"I had to sit there on the phone and tell this guy, 'You have to find someone to come in... or, do you have a relative with a computer who can help you or something like that?'" the employee said. "He was just like, 'No, no, no.'"
Social Security was a regular target for Musk during his tenure working for the Trump administration, and he repeatedly made baseless claims that the entire program was riddled with fraud, even referring to it as "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mamdani Inauguration Set for Site Befitting Public Transit Champion
Fellow democratic socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders will feature prominently in the swearing-in of New York City's next mayor.
Dec 30, 2025
Democratic New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's inauguration Thursday will feature luminaries of the left including US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will gather to swear in the democratic socialist in a location befitting a candidate who ran on a transit-forward platform.
Mamdani will be officially sworn by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James during a private ceremony attended by members of his family in the abandoned—but well-preserved—Old City Hall subway station, Streetsblog first reported.
"When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904—one of New York’s 28 original subway stations—it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives," Mamdani said in a statement.
"That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: It will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above," he added.
Mamdan ran on a platform of fare-free city buses—to be funded by tax hikes on corporations and wealthy individuals—improved public transit performance, sustainability and emissions reduction, technology-enhanced mobility, and multimodal integration.
"When I take my oath from the station at the dawn of the New Year, I will do so humbled by the opportunity to lead millions of New Yorkers into a new era of opportunity, and honored to carry forward our city’s legacy of greatness," Mamdani said.
Mamdani is set to be ceremoniously sworn in at a 1:00 pm public event at City Hall alongside incoming Comptroller Mark Levine and reelected Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, both Democrats. CNN reported Tuesday that Mamdani will be introduced by Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
“For the many New Yorkers who have long felt betrayed by a broken status quo, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embodies a new kind of politics that puts working people at the heart of it,” Mamdani said in a statement.
“I’ve been so proud to count her as a partner across the many stages of our people-powered movement—from the primary campaign to our Forest Hills rally in October to the very first day of the transition—and I’m honored that she’ll be a part of our historic City Hall inauguration," he added.
Sanders (I-Vt.) will subsequently administer the oath of office to Mamdani.
“His victory is not just about one city or one election, it is about the strength of a working-class movement that says unequivocally: The future of New York belongs to the people, not the billionaire class," Sanders said last week of Mamdani. "It is my honor to swear him in as the next mayor of New York City.”
Streetsblog reported that the ceremonial inauguration will take place alongside a car-free block party on Broadway.
While Republicans—and plenty of so-called "moderate" Democrats—are unnerved by the prospect of Mamdani's mayordom, a recent Rasmussen survey found that a majority of all US voters under the age of 40 want a democratic socialist to be the next president of the United States.
"A significant majority of Americans are sick of the neoliberal 'let the rich run things because they know best' bullshit that Republicans, 'tech bros,' and a shrinking minority of on-the-take Democratic politicians embrace," frequent Common Dreams opinion contributor Thom Hartmann wrote last week.
"The exploding popularity of progressive politicians from Zorhan Mamdani to Bernie Sanders, [Democratic Texas Congresswoman] Jasmine Crockett, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren’t an anomaly," he added, "they’re a signpost to both electoral and governing success for the next generation of genuinely progressive Democratic politicians."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Senate Dems Want to Know How Trump's Chief of Staff Got Access to Epstein Files
With the Justice Department under fire for how it's handled the documents, the senators asked Susie Wiles to describe her "role in any process related to the review, redaction, withholding, or release of material."
Dec 30, 2025
Two Democratic leaders in the US Senate revealed Tuesday that they're demanding answers from the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, about her access to federal files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and whether she's involved in their "bungled and potentially illegal partial release."
President Donald Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein—at least until a reported falling out in 2004. Although the president ultimately signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, it came after he faced intense criticism for his administration not willingly releasing the records, and congressional Republicans delayed passage of the bill, which requires the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to publish materials related to the late financier's sex trafficking case.
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), ranking member for the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, began their letter to Wiles by pointing to a two-part Vanity Fair series featuring interviews with Trump's top advisers, including Wiles.
As Chris Whipple reported:
Wiles told me she'd read what she calls "the Epstein file." And, she said, "[Trump] is in the file. And we know he's in the file. And he's not in the file doing anything awful." Wiles said that Trump "was on [Epstein's] plane… he's on the manifest. They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever—I know it's a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together."
Noting those remarks, the senators wrote to Wiles, "Please be kind enough to explain when and where and under what authority you gained access to this material."
They also sent Wiles the list of questions below and requested her response by January 5:
- What were the materials in "the Epstein file" you referred to in your Vanity Fair interview?
- Had material in the file you reviewed been presented to a grand jury?
- When did you first gain access to "the Epstein file" and what was the schedule of your review of it?
- For what purpose did you gain access to this information?
- Did you share with President Trump any information contained in the file you reviewed?
- Please describe your role in any process related to the review, redaction, withholding, or release of material in the "Epstein file," including any processes involving the Department of Justice or Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The letter is dated December 22, just three days after the deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The DOJ has missed the deadline, released files in batches, and faced scrutiny for redactions.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular