Nearly 750,000 cluster munitions containing 85 million submunitions have been destroyed by countries that joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions adopted in Dublin in 2008.
A global report said the most disturbing development of the year has been the serious allegations of new use of cluster munitions in Syria and Sudan.
While the allegations have not been confirmed, Cluster Munitions Monitor 2012 considers them to be credible.
Neither state is among the 111 countries that joined the convention.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force on 1 August 2010, comprehensively prohibits the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
It also requires destruction of stockpiled cluster munitions within eight years and the clearance of cluster-munitions remnants within ten years, and assistance to victims, including those killed or injured by submunitions, as well as their families and affected communities.
Mary Wareham of the group Human Rights Watch said the impressive number of stockpiled cluster bombs destroyed under the Convention on Cluster Munitions demonstrates just how committed governments are to rapidly implementing the treaty, which she described as a milestone in humanitarian disarmament diplomacy.
She said states that have not yet joined need to “get on the right side of history".
The convention’s third meeting opens in Oslo next Tuesday.
According to the report, in 2011 alone at least 55 new cluster-munition casualties were confirmed in Cambodia, Iraq, Lao PDR, Lebanon and Sudan, as well as Western Sahara.
It also found that countries with major stockpiles, including the Netherlands, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Japan, and Germany, have indicated they will complete their stockpile destruction years in advance of the eight-year deadline.
