IA 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. J. RES. 91 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should sign the 

Declaration of the Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions and future 

instruments banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm 

to civilians. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 5, 2008 

Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Mr. ALLEN) introduced 

the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs 

JOINT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States 

should sign the Declaration of the Oslo Conference on 

Cluster Munitions and future instruments banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. 

Whereas cluster munitions are bombs, rockets, or artillery 

shells that contain up to hundreds of small submunitions, 

or individual ‘‘bomblets’’ intended for attacking enemy 

troop formations and armor; 

Whereas cluster munitions threaten the safety of civilians, 

particularly children, when used in populated areas because they are scattered over a wide area, and up to 40 

percent fail to explode as designed, remaining as duds 


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that can be detonated accidentally by whoever comes into 

contact with them; 

Whereas, according to the nongovernmental organization 

Handicap International, civilians make up 98 percent of 

those killed or injured by cluster munitions, of which 

more than 25 percent are children; 

Whereas in Laos alone there are millions of unexploded cluster munitions, left over from United States bombing missions in the 1960s and 1970s, and approximately 11,000 

people, 30 percent of them children, have been killed or 

injured since those missions ended; 

Whereas former Secretary of Defense William Cohen recognized the threat that cluster munitions pose to civilians 

and United States troops alike and issued a memorandum which became known as the Cohen Policy, stating that beginning in Fiscal Year 2005, all new United 

States cluster munitions would have a failure rate of not 

more than 1 percent; 

Whereas the United States maintains an arsenal of an estimated 5,500,000 cluster bombs containing 728,500,000 

submunitions, which have estimated failure rates of 5 to 

15 percent; 

Whereas the State and Foreign Operations division of the 

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, signed into law 

on December 26, 2007, prohibits the sale or transfer of 

cluster munitions unless they have a 99 percent or higher 

tested rate, and the sale or transfer agreement specifies 

that the cluster munitions will be used only against clearly defined military targets, and will not be used where civilians are known to be present; 


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Whereas, in February 2007, 46 nations signed a declaration 

in Oslo, Norway, calling for an international convention 

to prohibit the production, transfer, and stockpiling of 

cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians; 

Whereas, on May 30, 2008, 111 nations agreed to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will be signed in 

Oslo in December 2008, requiring parties to stop producing and using cluster bombs and to eliminate their 

stockpiles within 8 years; and 

Whereas the Bush Administration declined to participate in 

the negotiations of the Oslo Process: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives

2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 That it is the sense of Congress that the United States 

4 should— 

5 (1) embrace efforts to protect innocent citizens 

6 from cluster munitions; and 

7 (2) sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions 

8 when it opens for signature in December 2008. 

Æ 


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