A cluster munition is a bomb, artillery shell or rocket, which when launched or dropped, opens an outside canister, releasing a number of smaller bombs,submunitions, over a wide area.
The submunitions are designed to explode before, on, or just after impact
with the ground, although many fail to do so. The unexploded submunitions can then lie dormant until they are disturbed , which may be years or even decades after conflicts end.
Children are often the unwitting victims, having been attracted by the small size and brightcolours of the deadly submunitions.. A number of other characteristics also render cluster munitions inherent violators of international humanitarian law. They are often inaccurate, have a large area of effect, and the vast majority of those injured or killed by cluster submunitions are civilians.
Cluster bombs have been used in 23 conflicts and
in all of them have caused a consistence and predictable
pattern of human devastation both during, and in some cases,
for decades after, the conflict.
