Cluster Munitions and International Law

Disarmament With a Human Face?

Alexander Breitegger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781136507182
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Droit
• Subtopic: Droit international

This book offers a comprehensive argument for why pre-existing international law on cluster munitions was inadequate to deal with the full scope of humanitarian consequences associated with their use. The book undertakes an interdisciplinary legal analysis of restraints and prohibitions on the use of cluster munitions under international humanitarian law, human rights law, and international criminal law, as well as in relation to the recently adopted Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). The book goes on to offer an in-depth substantive and procedural analysis of the negotiations which led to the 2008 CCM, in part based on the author's experiences as an adviser to Cluster Munitions Coalition-Austria.

Cluster Munitions and International Law is essential reading for practitioners and scholars of International Law, including International Humanitarian, Human Rights, International Criminal or Disarmament Law and anyone interested in legal and humanitarian perspectives on cluster munitions legislation and policy. It is unique in bringing a practitioner's perspective to a scholarly work.

Index

abandoned ordnance 58, 59, 145

accuracy of cluster munitions: airdropped 82; CBU-87 83; definition 143; direct fire 147, 148, 164–5, 186; Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission 68–9; exemptions from prohibited ones 158, 164–5, 186, 217; free-falling nature 44, 47, 54; Orkan rockets 78–9, 80; and precautionary obligations 53, 214; prohibition of inaccurate ones 151; Protocol V to CCW 59; and proportionality 48–9; sensor-fused weapons 55–6, 57, 145–6, 188; technological advancements 55–6, 57, 145–6, 188, 218; unguided nature 44, 54, 55, 82

Additional Protocols see API; APII

affected states: committed to Oslo process 145; not party to CCW 139, 152; poor countries 29–30; presence at Conferences 134, 139, 140, 149–50, 152, 160; support Oslo declaration 141; see also anti-personnel landmines; clearance of cluster munition remnants; victim assistance

Afghanistan 20, 23, 44

agricultural land, contamination of 30; and customary international law 50; and definition of victim 202; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 101; in Lebanon 25, 28, 129, 130, 131; protection of environment 50–1; and rule of proportionality 49, 50

air-dropped cluster munitions 15, 16; control of airspace 94; definition 13; Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission 67–9; how they work 13–14, 16; jurisdiction issues 94; military purpose 54; Operation Allied Force 80–4; use of 19–26, 44, 67–9, 80–4, 91–2

amputations of limbs 26, 28, 29, 73–4

Annan, Kofi 137

anti-materiel sub-munitions 15, 19, 20, 26, 55, 67, 75, 82

anti-personnel landmines: clearance of 32, 197; Convention on Conventional Weapons 135, 197; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 109–15; equivalence with unexploded sub-munitions 45–6, 80, 135; foreign s...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Cluster Munitions and International Law
• Routledge Research in the Law of Armed Conflict
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Table of cases
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Factual evidence in relation to cluster munitions
• Existing international humanitarian law relevant to cluster munitions
• Jurisprudence on IHL in relation to cluster munition use
• The use of cluster munitions as a human rights problem
• Issues related to cluster munition use before human rights mechanisms
• The Oslo process on cluster munitions and its interaction with the CCW
• The Convention on Cluster Munitions
• Conclusions
• Annexes
• Select bibliography
• Index