About Us
Our Research Products
Iraq
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions
|
Convention on Cluster Munitions status |
Signatory |
|
Participation in Convention on Cluster Munitions meetings |
Attended Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 and intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2012 |
|
Key developments |
Ratification is underway |
Policy
The Republic of Iraq signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 November 2009.
In a May 2012 letter to the Monitor and an April 2012 meeting with CMC, Iraqi officials confirmed that the Council of Representatives (parliament) is still considering Iraq’s ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] The ratification package was referred to parliament shortly after Iraq signed the ban convention, but has been delayed by elections and other legislative priorities.[2]
Iraq has stated that it continues to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite not yet ratifying.[3] It is not known if specific legislative measures will be undertaken to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Iraq participated in some meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, but attended both the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 as an observer.[4] In December 2008, Iraq pledged to sign the convention as soon as possible after completing national and constitutional processes.[5] It subsequently signed the convention at the UN in New York in November 2009.
Iraq has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It attended the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, where it made a statement. Iraq also participated in convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011 and April 2012.
The Iraqi Alliance for Disability and other civil society groups have continued to campaign in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including its ratification.
Iraq is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Iraq is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in November 2011 as an observer. Iraq did not comment on the chair’s draft text of the proposed CCW protocol on cluster munitions under negotiation. The Review Conference concluded without concluding a protocol, thus marking the end of the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Iraq may have used cluster munitions in the past. According to one source, Iraq used air-dropped cluster bombs against Iranian troops in 1984.[6]
Coalition forces used large numbers of cluster munitions in Iraq in 1991 and 2003. The United States (US), France, and the United Kingdom (UK) dropped 61,000 cluster bombs containing some 20 million submunitions on Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. The number of cluster munitions delivered by surface-launched artillery and rocket systems is not known, but an estimated 30 million or more dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions were used in the conflict.[7] 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.[8]
In May 2011, Iraq stated that “There are no facilities that produce cluster munitions in Iraq.”[9] Prior to 2003, Iraq produced two types of cluster bombs: the NAAMAN-250 and NAAMAN-500.[10] It was also involved in joint development of the M87 Orkan (known in Iraq as Ababil) with Yugoslavia.[11]
Iraq imported ASTROS cluster munition rockets from Brazil.[12] Jane’s Information Group has listed it as possessing KMG-U dispensers (which deploy submunitions) and CB-470, RBK-250, RBK-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[13] The current status of the stockpile is not known.
Iraq has stated on several occasions that it does not stockpile cluster munitions. In a May 2012 letter, Iraq stated that it does not have a cluster munitions stockpile.[14] In an April 2012 meeting with the Monitor, an Iraqi official cited the Monitor’s inclusion of Iraq on a list of countries believed to stockpile cluster munitions and clarified that that Iraq never manufactured cluster munitions and has no stockpiles.[15] Previously, in May 2011, a government official stated “The Iraqi Army does not possess any stockpiles of cluster munitions at the present time.”[16] In June 2011, Iraq stated that its Civil Defense team had destroyed 20,819 “cluster items” from 2009–2010, and the Ministry of Defense had destroyed 6,265 “cluster items” in 2010.[17]
[1] Letter from the Ministry of Environment, forwarded by Dr. Abbas K. O. Abbas, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permament Mission of Iraq to the UN in Geneva, to Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Ref. 205/2012, 8 May 2012. Translation by the Monitor; and Interview with Abbas Kadhom Obaid, Counsellor, Arms Control and Disarmament, Permanent Mission of Iraq to the UN in Geneva, 18 April 2012.
[2] In June 2011, Iraq said that ratification was awaiting parliamentary approval amid a range of urgent issues. Meeting with Iraqi delegation, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 29 June 2011. Notes by the CMC. In November 2010, Iraq stated that ratification had been delayed following elections. Meeting with Amb. Faris Abdulkarim Zarawi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, Vientiane, 10 November 2010.
[3] Statement of Iraq, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 9 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[4] For details on Iraq’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 211–212.
[5] Statement of Iraq, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[6] Anthony H. Cordesman and Abraham R. Wagner, Lessons of Modern War Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990), p. 210. The bombs were reportedly produced by Chile.
[7] Colin King, “Explosive Remnants of War: A Study on Submunitions and other Unexploded Ordnance,” commissioned by the ICRC, August 2000, p. 16, citing: Donald Kennedy and William Kincheloe, “Steel Rain: Submunitions,” U.S. Army Journal, January 1993.
[8] HRW, Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq (New York: HRW, 2003).
[9] “Steps taken by the designated Iraqi authorities with regard to Iraq’s ratification and implementation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” document provided with letter to HRW Arms Division from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the UN in New York, 11 May 2011.
[10] Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, Issue 24, July 1996. These are copies of Chilean cluster bombs.
[11] Terry J. Gandler and Charles Q. Cutshaw, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2001–2002 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2001), p. 641.
[12] Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, “Scandals: Not Just a Bank, You can get anything you want through B.C.C.I.—guns, planes, even nuclear-weapons technology,” Time, 2 September 1991.
[13] Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, Issue 24, July 1996, p. 840. The Iraq Ordnance Identification Guide produced for Coalition Forces also lists the Alpha submunition contained in the South African produced CB-470 as a threat present in Iraq. James Madison University Mine Action Information Center, “Iraq Ordnance Identification Guide, Dispenser, Cluster and Launcher,” January 2004, p. 6, www.maic.jmu.edu. The KMG-U and RBKs were likely produced in the Soviet Union.
[14] Letter from Iraq Ministry of Environment, forwarded by Dr. Abbas K. O. Abbas, Permanent Mission of Iraq to the UN in Geneva, to Mary Wareham, HRW, Ref. 205/2012, 8 May 2012. Translation by the Monitor.
[15] Meeting with Pewan Jasim Ibrahim Zawitai, First Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament, Permanent Mission of Iraq to the UN in Geneva, April 2012.
[16] “Steps taken by the designated Iraqi authorities with regard to Iraq’s ratification and implementation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” document provided with letter to HRW Arms Division from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the UN in New York, 11 May 2011.
[17] Presentation of Iraq, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Session on Clearance and Risk Reduction, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
Send us your feedback on this profile
Send the Monitor your feedback by filling out this form. Responses will be channeled to editors, but will not be available online. Click if you would like to send an attachment. If you are using webmail, send attachments to .