To: The United States House of Representatives
Stand with @HRW: Stop Producing & Exporting Cluster Bombs
Just Foreign Policy
Use the National Defense Authorization Act to end or limit the production and transfer of cluster bombs.
Why is this important?
Saudi Arabia has used US-made cluster munitions in civilian areas in Yemen, leaving behind unexploded submunitions, Human Rights Watch reports. HRW is calling on the US to end its production and transfer of cluster munitions to conform with the widely accepted international ban on these weapons. [1]
More than 100 nations have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions due to the unacceptable harm they cause to civilians. Cluster munitions have wide area effects without distinction between civilians and combatants. Cluster munitions leave behind unexploded ordnance that can kill and injure civilians and obstruct economic and social development for decades after use. [2]
US law prohibits recipients of US cluster munitions from using them in civilian areas. But Saudi Arabia has used US cluster munitions in civilian areas of Yemen, killing and wounding civilians. US law also bars the export of cluster munitions if more than 1% of the weapons’ submunitions fail to explode upon impact. But a Human Rights Watch report shows CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, manufactured by US company Textron and used by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, delivered submunitions that failed to explode. [3]
Urge your Representative to support any amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would end or limit the production or transfer of cluster bombs by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cluster-munitions
2. http://www.clusterconvention.org/
3. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/dispatch-us-contradictions-landmines-and-cluster-munitions
More than 100 nations have joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions due to the unacceptable harm they cause to civilians. Cluster munitions have wide area effects without distinction between civilians and combatants. Cluster munitions leave behind unexploded ordnance that can kill and injure civilians and obstruct economic and social development for decades after use. [2]
US law prohibits recipients of US cluster munitions from using them in civilian areas. But Saudi Arabia has used US cluster munitions in civilian areas of Yemen, killing and wounding civilians. US law also bars the export of cluster munitions if more than 1% of the weapons’ submunitions fail to explode upon impact. But a Human Rights Watch report shows CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, manufactured by US company Textron and used by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, delivered submunitions that failed to explode. [3]
Urge your Representative to support any amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would end or limit the production or transfer of cluster bombs by signing our petition.
References:
1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/yemen-saudis-using-us-cluster-munitions
2. http://www.clusterconvention.org/
3. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/06/dispatch-us-contradictions-landmines-and-cluster-munitions