An effort by some countries to legitimize the ongoing use, production, trade, and stockpiling of cluster munitions failed today, in the lead-up to a comprehensive legal ban on the weapon that more than 100 other nations plan to sign in Oslo, Norway on December 3.

The United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and Finland were among the countries pushing for a new protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) that would allow the use of all existing cluster munitions, including the oldest, most inaccurate, and unreliable varieties, for a period of up to 20 years.

This draft CCW text would have given a sheen of legitimacy to nations that want to continue to use cluster munitions

The objecting countries have supported a separate treaty process that resulted in the successful negotiation and adoption by 107 nations in May 2008 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the weapon