EDITORIAL ANALYSIS : Stop the fence-sitting in cluster bomb use

Source: The Hindu

• Prelims: Current events of international importance, referendum, UNGA, Cluster bomb, Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) etc
• Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global grouping involving India or affecting India’s interests.

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

• United States send cluster munitions to Ukraine, as part of a new military aid package to bolster Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

What is the Conflict?

• Contesting the Post-Cold War central European territoriality and resurrecting Russian past is at the core of the Ukraine crisis.
• They share hundreds of years of cultural, linguistic and familial links.
• Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership and Russian interests in the Black Sea accompanied by the protests in the Ukraine are the major causes of the ongoing conflict.

Cluster munitions or cluster bombs:

• They are weapons that release multiple explosive submunitions, also called bomblets, into the air.
• These submunitions explode as soon as they hit the ground, killing and maiming people in the area.
• Many bomblets do not blow up instantly and remain dormant for years (also known as the dud rate).
• These inactive bomblets act as precarious landmines, posing a grave threat to the civilian population, including women and children, for a long time.
• They were used in the Second World War.
• Cluster bombs have been used on multiple occasions including by the U.S. in the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
• According to the Cluster Munition Monitor, anywhere between 56,000 to 86,000 people have died in cluster munition-affected countries, since the 1960s.

Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM):

• It was enacted in 2008.
• The enactment of the CCM has been a major step in eradicating cluster bombs.
• The treaty is not universal — 112 countries have acceded to the CCM including many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members such as Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
• Important countries such as the U.S, Russia, China, Israel, and India have not signed the CCM.
  • Ukraine is not a member.
• Article 1 of the CCM bans the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster bombs.
• The convention obligates countries to destroy existing stockpiles of cluster munitions in their possession.
• Countries are legally bound to develop a victim assistance programme to provide support and rehabilitation to the cluster bomb victims in their jurisdiction.

Way Forward

• A fundamental customary international law (CIL) norm applicable to armed conflicts is the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.
  • An essential canon of international law is that the use of force must be discriminate.
    • that is, the force should target specific military objectives and not civilians.
  • This CIL norm is codified in Article 51(4) of Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which both Russia and Ukraine are parties.
  • Given the nature of cluster bombs, their usage is a classic example of indiscriminate use of force that fails to differentiate between combatants and civilians, or between civilian objects and military objectives, and is thus illegal.
  • Codified in Article 51(5) of the Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: This rule prohibits excessive use of force that causes incidental damage to the civilian population or civilian objects, when compared to military benefits anticipated.
    • The use of cluster bombs is inherently indiscriminate, harming civilians
    • Their use will amount to disproportionate use of force and is thus illegal.
    • Even if Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the CCM, their use of cluster bombs violates international law.
  • Supplying cluster bombs to Ukraine outside of the CCM, is not a violation of international law.
    • Nonetheless, supplying cluster bombs to any country is an irresponsible act.
  • The usage and the possession and transfer or supply of cluster bombs should be banned universally, as envisaged in the CCM.
    • All United Nations member-countries should accede to the CCM and eradicate cluster bombs from the face of the earth.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

What is the significance of Indo-US deals over Indo-Russian defense deals? Discuss with reference to stability in the Indo-Pacific region (UPSC 2020) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)