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Country Reports
Download PDF of country response to Human Rights Watch letter.
Lebanon

Lebanon

The Republic of Lebanon signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. In February 2009, Lebanon confirmed that it was seeking to ratify the convention and that once ratified, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants would propose the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to oversee its implementation.[1] As a state seriously affected by cluster munitions, Lebanon played a high profile and influential role in the Oslo Process.

Lebanon is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has participated as an observer in much of the CCW work on cluster munitions in recent years.

Lebanon has stated that it has never used, produced or stockpiled cluster munitions, and “it’s not willing to do so.”[2] It is not believed to have a stockpile. However, Hezbollah fired more than 100 cluster munition rockets into northern Israel from southern Lebanon in 2006.[3]

Lebanon is contaminated by the use of cluster munitions by others. Israel used cluster munitions in southern Lebanon in 1978 and against Syrian forces and non-state armed forces in 1982.[4] United States Navy aircraft dropped 12 CBU-59 and 28 Rockeye bombs against Syrian air defense units near Beirut in December 1983.[5] Israel fired more than 4 million submunitions into southern Lebanon in 2006, in one of the most egregious instances of the use of cluster munitions.[6]

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

The massive use of cluster munitions by Israel on the territory of Lebanon during the 2006 war with Hezbollah contributed greatly to the sense of humanitarian urgency that underpinned the Oslo Process. Lebanon was actively engaged throughout the Oslo Process and consistently argued that humanitarian concerns should be given primacy in the development of the convention’s provisions.

Lebanon participated in all of the international diplomatic conferences of the Oslo Process to develop the convention text in Oslo, Lima, Vienna, and Wellington, as well as the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the conference in Belgrade for affected states in October 2007. Lebanon hosted a regional conference in Beirut from 11–12 November 2008.

At the Oslo conference which launched the Oslo Process in February 2007, Lebanon said that the humanitarian problems of cluster munitions could not be solved through technology and spoke against proposals to use submunition “failure rates” as a basis for assessing the acceptability of cluster munitions.[7] Lebanon was also skeptical of the prospects for agreement of a meaningful instrument in the CCW, noting that it had not delivered on previous calls to action.[8]

At the Lima conference in May 2007, Lebanon gave a keynote speech in the Opening Ceremony, noting, “Today across south Lebanon [unexploded submunitions] are stuck in the branches of olive trees…they are on roof tops, mixed in with rubble, littered across fields, farms, backyards, driveways, roads, and outside schools.”[9] Lebanon drew on its recent experience of civilian casualties, of wounded children, and of widespread destruction from the use of cluster munitions to argue for a broad prohibition and for mechanisms to assist affected individuals and communities. Lebanon strongly supported provisions on the responsibilities of past users of cluster munitions.[10]

At the Wellington conference in February 2008, Lebanon continued to argue for a comprehensive definition of a cluster munition without exceptions based on technical criteria.[11] Lebanon also continued to advocate for special obligations for the past users of cluster munitions and called on states to support strong provisions for victim assistance.[12]

At the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008, Lebanon warned against exceptions to the prohibition based on accuracy or reliability criteria, noting that in the past certain submunitions had been heralded as “humanitarian” only to be proved otherwise in practice.[13]

Lebanon joined the consensus adoption of the convention, hailing it as ushering in a new approach to international law “that put humanitarian concerns at the very center.” Lebanon transmitted a message of sincere thanks from the individuals and communities affected by cluster munitions to the states that had worked together to adopt the convention. [14]

During the Global Week of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs in October 2008, campaigners staged “peace checkpoints” across Lebanon, distributing over 20,000 leaflets to raise public awareness about the convention. On 1 November, a roundtable with government ministers was held in Bint Jbeil, the site of a cluster munition strike, with 150 participants, including ministers, parliamentarians, heads of municipalities, and other community figures. On 2 November, 700 Scouts marched in Beirut to raise awareness about cluster munitions.[15]

Lebanon hosted the Beirut Regional Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions from 11–12 November 2008. Government representatives participated from Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, and from states outside the region. The conference focused on responses to the 2006 crisis in Lebanon and resource mobilization in the framework of the convention.[16]

Although not a party to the CCW, Lebanon participated as an observer in the work on cluster munitions in 2008. In November, as CCW negotiations were scheduled to conclude, Lebanon was one of 26 countries that issued a joint statement expressing their opposition to the weak draft text on a possible CCW protocol on cluster munitions, indicating it was an unacceptable step back from the standards set by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[17]

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Fawzi Salloukh signed the convention in Oslo on 3 December 2008. To states that had not yet embraced the convention, he said that “the time has come to put the welfare of human beings and their security as a priority above national security.”[18]

Lebanon has provided interpretive statements on a number of important provisions in the convention. These include that the prohibition on transfer of cluster munitions includes a prohibition on “transit,” that financing and investment in cluster munition production or transfer is prohibited, and that Article 1 of the convention takes precedence over Article 21, so that “States Parties must never undertake any act that could constitute deliberate assistance with a prohibited act.” [19]


[1] Letter from the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN Office in Geneva, 10 February 2009.

[2] Ibid. See also, Statement by Amb. Gebran Soufan, Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN in Geneva, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 23 May 2007.

[3] Hezbollah fired more than 100 Chinese-produced Type-81 122mm cluster munition rockets into northern Israel. Human Rights Watch, “Civilians Under Assault: Hezbollah’s Rocket Attacks on Israel in the 2006 War,” August 2007, Vol. 19, No. 2(E), pp. 44–48, www.hrw.org.

[4] Human Rights Watch, “Cluster Munition Information Chart,” April 2009, www.hrw.org.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Human Rights Watch, “Flooding South Lebanon: Israel’s Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August 2006,” February 2008, Vol. 20, No. 2(E), www.hrw.org.

[7] Statement of Lebanon, Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22 February 2007. Notes by CMC/WILPF.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Statement by Amb. Gebran Soufan, Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN in Geneva, Lima Conference, 23 May 2007.

[10] Lebanon also called for the establishment of a UN compensation mechanism to receive victims’ claims and a UN trust fund for victim assistance. Statement of Lebanon, Lima Conference, 24 May 2007. Unofficial transcription by WILPF.

[11] Statement of Lebanon, Session on Definitions, Wellington Conference on Cluster Munitions, 19 February 2008. Notes by CMC.

[12] Statement of Lebanon, Session on Victim Assistance, Wellington Conference, 19 February 2008. Notes by CMC.

[13] Statement of Lebanon, Committee of the Whole on Article 2, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, 19 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[14] Statement of Lebanon, Closing Ceremony, Dublin Diplomatic Conference, 30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[15] CMC, “Global Week of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs, 27 October – 2 November 2008,” www.stopclustermunitions.org.

[16] The conference was hosted by the Lebanon Mine Action Centre (LMAC), with support of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian embassy to Lebanon. Lebanese campaigners worked closely with the LMAC to prepare the conference. Participation was minimal from most of the regional countries, with the exceptions of Bahrain, Jordan, and Yemen. CMC, “CMC Newsletter November – December 2008, Beirut Regional Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 11–12 November 2008,” 31 December 2008, www.stopclustermunitions.org.

[17] Statement delivered by Costa Rica on behalf of Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Holy See, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Uruguay, and Venezuela, Fifth 2008 Session of the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 5 November 2008.

[18] Statement by Fawzi Salloukh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.

[19] Letter from the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN Office in Geneva, 10 February 2009.