Cluster munitions: a threat to health and human rights

Abstract

Over the course of 2009, dozens of nations signed a new convention on cluster munitions, and several nations ratified the convention. To determine how public health professionals can participate in preventing death and injury from cluster munitions, we review the history of these weapons, their effects on individuals and communities, the history of efforts to limit their use, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and ways that health professionals can support efforts to ban their use. Cluster munitions are a threat to civilians in conflict and post-conflict settings. They render homes, farms and businesses dangerous and inaccessible, and delay resettlement after the end of a conflict. Health professionals have led efforts to limit the use and proliferation of other weapons, and global collaboration to support the Convention on Cluster Munitions would be a step towards protecting the public's health.

Keywords:

• bombs
• blast injuries
• cluster munitions
• health
• human rights
• international co-operation
• war
• weapons

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Howard Hu, M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D. (University of Michigan School of Public Health), Susannah Sirkin, M.Ed. (Physicians for Human Rights) Nicholas Reeves, B.S. (Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) for their insightful comments.