Banning cluster bombs

February 22, 2007

Norway is hosting a 40-nation meeting this week to bolster support for a ban on cluster bombs. Norway took the lead on the anti-cluster bomb campaign after the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in November failed to agree to start negotiations on a ban. Norway, along with Canada, was instrumental in the anti-landmine campaign which resulted in the Ottawa treaty banning them. Handicap International estimates cluster bombs have killed more than 11,000 civilians around the globe in the past 30 years, but notes those are only documented cases.