Cluster munitions in Lebanon (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
Israel\u27s extensive use of the Cluster Munitions in the 2006 Lebanon War provided a major impetus for drafting the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Israel, blamed for severe humanitarian post-conflict harm to civilians in South Lebanon, simultaneously faced an extensive diplomatic entanglement with the U.S. based on suspicions that Israel had violated U.S. legislation as well as a classified bilateral end-use agreement specifying the conditions of use of U.S.-made CMs. Relying on numerous sources, especially the recent declassified (June 2008) IDF\u27s Military Advocate General\u27s legal opinion into whether Israel\u27s CM use complied with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the 2008 Israel\u27s Inquiry Commission into the 2006 War final report, this Article lists seven intriguing lessons learned from that War regarding the legality of CM under IHL. These lessons also highlight the fundamental differences in the approaches taken by CCM supporters vis-รก-vis the U....
Campaigning against Cluster Munitions - Strategic Issues
Concern regarding the use of cluster munitions is not new and many campaigners have been frustrated that, while anti-personnel mines were made illegal by the Ottawa Treaty, no effective instrument exists to stop or even control the wide-scale use of cluster munitions. There has been civil society activism directed at the use of cluster munitions for more than thirty years, especially regarding their use in South East Asia and during Operation Desert Storm, but advocacy has been sporadic and national campaigns have not merged into a viable international movement. The emerging campaign now fostered by the international cluster coalition is making progress in building awareness of the threat posed by these weapon systems, an awareness which has recently been increased through media coverage of the deployment of cluster weapons by the coalition forces against targets in residential districts of Iraqi cities and towns.