This May 14, the Republic of Iraq ratified the treaty against cluster munitions. An important step in the fight against these weapons because Iraq is one of the most contaminated countries in the world. Accession to the Treaty involves the destruction of these weapons of death and the assistance for the thousands of victims.
The Republic of Iraq has ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, after depositing its instrument of ratification on 14 May, in New-York, at the United Nations. Iraq became the 83rd State parties of the Convention.
Iraq’s ratification represents a landmark moment for the Convention, given the history of use in the country, and is an important development for Iraq given the high level of cluster bomb contamination remaining and its impact on communities.
Iraq’s ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions demonstrates its strong commitment to the treaty in a year that marks the 10th anniversary of cluster munition strikes during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 million to 2 million submunitions.
Cluster munitions were also used during the 1991 Gulf War, leaving a deadly legacy of submunition contamination in Iraq.
After Laos, Iraq has the second highest number of recorded cluster munition casualties in the world. Data available are incomplete but latest figures in the Cluster Munition Monitor show more than 3,000 recorded casualties in Iraq as of 2011. Children are estimated to have made up one quarter of these casualties. The accession of Iraq to the Oslo treaty, banning cluster munitions, represents a major step to prevent further accidents, to decontaminate the country and to provide adequate assistance to victims.
Handicap International first intervened in Iraq in 1991 to aid victims of the Gulf War. As well as performing risk education on mines and explosive remnants of war , from April 2013, the organisation also wants to raise awareness of the dangers involved in the improper use of small arms. The organisation continues to provide support to the KORD orthopaedic-fitting centre, which was founded when it first intervened in Iraqi Kurdistan.