Global cluster bomb ban takes effect August 1st

Moldova’s Ministry of Defence destroys cluster munition stocks in a controlled explosion at Bulboaca training ground, 29 July 2010.

A global treaty that bans the use of cluster bombs, a weapon containing multiple – often hundreds – of small explosive submunitions or bomblets, will take effect today, August 1st, when the treaty, signed by 107 countries, becomes legally binding. Steve Goose, who is the co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, comments that, “Nations that remain outside this treaty are missing out on the most significant advance in disarmament of the past decade.”

Canada became one of the signatories of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in December 2008, but the Harper government has not yet got around to formally ratifying the treaty.

Read more: “Cluster bomb ban treaty takes effect worldwide“, Cluster Munition Coalition, 29 July 2010

Photo credit: Asle Huse/NPA

Tags: Cluster bomb ban, Cluster bomb treaty, Cluster bombs, Cluster Munition Coalition, Defence policy