European Parliament resolution on cluster bombs
Date: 2001-12-13
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: arms control, arms limitation, civilian victim, military equipment, war damage

25.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 177 E/309

Thursday 13 December 2001

19. Cluster bombs

B5-0765, 0775, 0782 and 0789/2001

European Parliament resolution on cluster bombs

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW),

(cid:1) having regard to international humanitarian law,

(cid:1) having regard to the forthcoming second review conference of the Convention to be held in Geneva
from 10 to 21 December 2001, welcoming the recent confirmation by the EU General Affairs Council
of its commitment to the Convention on Conventional Weapons,

A. whereas over the past 35 years unexploded cluster bomb submunitions killed and maimed people in

conflict and post-conflict regions,

B. whereas people in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia/Chechnya,
Yugoslavia/Kosovo and Afghanistan can testify that their fields, villages and cities are not accessible
because of the existence of cluster bombs and other unexploded submunitions,

C.

recalling Article 35 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and
relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) of 8 June 1977,
which states in paragraph 2: ‘It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles and material and methods
of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering’,

D. whereas nearly half of all the 500 persons involved in mine and unexploded ordnances (UXO) acci-

dents in Kosovo have suffered as a result of unexploded cluster bomb submunitions,

E. whereas since the end of the war in Laos (1973), over 11 000 persons, 30 % of them children, have

been killed or injured by UXO,

F. whereas the use of cluster bombs is an obstacle to the return of refugees and displaced persons to

their homes because of the risk of becoming involved in submunitions accidents,

G. whereas the use of cluster bombs, in addition to resulting in the loss of human life, especially among
the civilian population, represents a serious obstacle to the social and economic recovery of affected
countries,

H.

recalling that cluster bombs are extremely dangerous and difficult to clear and therefore constitute a
long-term problem for post-conflict reconstruction and development,

I. whereas the use of cluster bombs puts the staff of humanitarian aid agencies and UN peacekeeping

forces at a high risk of becoming involved in accidents,

J.

extremely concerned at the difficulty in accurately targeting cluster bombs during conflict, the high
proportion of cluster bomblets which are found to have failed to detonate on impact, and the wide
area coverage of the bomblets, all of which means they pose a serious long-term threat to the civilian
populations,

C 177 E/310

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

25.7.2002

Thursday 13 December 2001

1.
Calls upon the CCW States Parties to declare an immediate moratorium until an international agree-
ment has been negotiated on the regulation, restriction or banning of the use, production, and transfer of
cluster munitions under the CCW, including air-dropped cluster munitions and submunitions delivered by
missiles, rockets, and artillery projectiles;

2.

Underlines the responsibility of users of cluster munition systems for the cleaning of affected areas;

Recommends that CCW Review Conference establish a group of government experts to examine the
3.
issue of explosive remnants of war, and in particular the problems caused by cluster bomb submunitions
both during and after an armed conflict; experts from mine-clearance and other relevant organisations
should be permitted to participate in the group’s work;

Urges all states possessing and/or using cluster munitions to undertake other measures, such as
4.
improving the reliability of fusing mechanisms by way of dual-event fuses and incorporating self-destruct
or self-neutralising mechanisms into munitions, in order to reduce the threat that these weapons pose to
civilian populations;

5.
Urges all states not party to the Convention to become so, and states parties to the CCW Convention
who have not already signed up to the amended Protocol II and/or Protocol IV to do so as soon as
possible;

6.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments of
the Member States, the UN Secretary-General, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all States
Parties to the Convention.

20. Human rights: Women in Afghanistan

B5-0763, 0766, 0776, 0784, 0790 and 0802/2001

European Parliament resolution on women in Afghanistan

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to its previous resolutions on Afghanistan and, in particular, on the situation of Afghan
women and the Declaration of the Afghan Women’s Summit held in Brussels on 4/5 December 2001,

(cid:1) having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

(cid:1) having regard to the measures taken by the Afghanistan Support Group in Bonn on 5/6 December

2001 for the coordination of the humanitarian and development efforts for Afghanistan,

A.

stressing that the Taliban regime has perpetrated the most deliberate form of violation of women’s
rights in recent history, imposing an apartheid based on sex that has denied women’s identity itself,

B. whereas there are almost 5 million Afghan refugees abroad, mostly in Pakistan and Iran; whereas the

majority of these refugees are women and children,

C. having regard to the high mortality rate among women and children,

D. whereas it is estimated that less than 5 % of Afghan women can read and write, while the literacy rate
for girls reaching school age during the period of Taliban rule is substantially lower, standing at
approximately 1 to 2 %,