POSITION PAPER

Committee: The Disarmament and International Security Committee

(DISEC)
Topic: Cluster Munitions in Modern Armed Conflicts
Delegate: Gautam Abichandani, St Joseph’s Degree and PG College.

According to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, “cluster munition” means a

conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive
submunitions each weighing less than 20 kilograms and includes those
explosive submunitions.

It does not mean the following:

a. A munition or submunition designed to dispense flares, smoke, pyrotechnics

or chaff; or a munition designed exclusively for an air defence role;
b. A munition or submunition designed to produce electrical or electronic
effects;
c. A munition that, in order to avoid indiscriminate area effects and the risks
posed by unexploded submunitions, has all of the following characteristics:
i. Each munition contains fewer than ten explosive submunitions;
ii. Each explosive submunition weighs more than four kilograms;
iii. Each explosive submunition is designed to detect and engage a single target
object;
iv. Each explosive submunition is equipped with an electronic self-destruction
mechanism;
v. Each explosive submunition is equipped with an electronic self-deactivating
feature.

Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area, they pose
risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. Unexploded bomblets can
kill or maim civilians and/or unintended targets long after a conflict has ended,
and are costly to locate and remove.
Cluster munitions are prohibited for those nations that ratify the Convention on
Cluster Munitions, adopted in Dublin, Ireland in May 2008. The Convention
entered into force and became binding international law upon ratifying states on
1 August 2010, six months after being ratified by 30 states. As of 1 April 2018,
a total of 120 states have joined the Convention, as 103 States parties and 17
Signatories.

Saudi Arabia has not produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has
acquired and stocked them. In late May 2016, the Obama administration
suspended all sales and deliveries of United States (US) cluster
munitions to Saudi Arabia after reports that Saudi Arabia used them in civilian
areas in Yemen. Saudi Arabia has admitted that it used cluster bombs against
Houthi rebels in Yemen for the sake of self-defence however Saudi Arabia has
decided to stop further usage of such ammunition because of its unpredictable
nature.

Saudi Arabia is no part in production and sales of such ammunition and wishes
to let it stay that way in the upcoming future.