Though 2017 saw a sharp decline in casualties as a result of the use of cluster munitions compared to the previous year, two conflicts – in Syria and Yemen – accounted for the vast majority of the victims, a new United Nations-backed civil society report has found.

According to the 2018 Cluster Munition Monitor report, released Thursday at the UN Office at Geneva, civilians accounted for 99 per cent of all casualties recorded in 2017.

This figure is “consistent with statistics on cluster munition casualties for all time, and due to the indiscriminate and inhumane nature of the weapon,” said the Cluster Munition Coalition, the organization authoring the report.

In 2017, a total of 289 new cluster munition casualties were recorded. Syria (187) and Yemen (54) saw the highest numbers, other countries and regions recording casualties include Cambodia, Iraq, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Serbia, and Viet Nam, as well as Nagorno-Karabakh and Western Sahara.

The previous year, 2016, also saw Syria recording the highest number of cluster. That year, the overall total was 971. 

Cluster munitions have been used in Syria by Syrian Government forces with Russia’s support, and in Yemen, by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition, noted the report.

In addition, it noted that the Cluster Munition Monitor could not conclusively confirm allegations of new cluster munition use in Egypt and Libya.

“There was a significant drop in the number of reported cluster munition attacks in Syria and Yemen, but many attacks likely went unrecorded,” it added.

Cluster munitions are air-dropped or ground-launched explosives weapons that release or eject smaller submunitions, designed to kill personnel or destroy vehicles. However, the indiscriminate nature of the dispersal and the large numbers of submunitions that fail to explode as intended often result in large numbers of civilian casualties.

Convention on Cluster Munitions

In order to protect civilians and limit the use of such weapons, an international conference held in Dublin in 2008 adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions, prohibiting all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of those weapons.

Since then, a total of 120 countries have signed or acceded to the Convention, of which 103 are States Parties legally bound by all of the Convention’s provisions.

Hacking, child sexual exploitation and other cybercrimes could keep countries from reaching their development goals, warns a United Nations official who is urging Governments and private sectors to rethink how they work together.

“Keeping people safer online makes society safer,” said Neil Walsh, Chief of Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering Section at the UN drug and crime agency (UNODC) told UN News.

He noted that countering cybercrime creates stronger banking and stronger financial institutions, which leads to better economic prosperity. It also makes the world a bit safer women and girls – who consistently are at a higher right for sexual exploitation online – and promotes gender equality.

These are essential targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are guiding efforts to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.

Mr. Walsh said that by keeping people from the age of three all the way through their lives safe online, “you actually help business to function properly, you keep power grids and power safe, you create an element of behavior that allows people to bring all the benefits of the interne, open free and prosperous Internet to keeping them safe.”

That, he says, is what cyber-diplomacy is all about.

With recent concerns about hacking and ‘fake news’ impacting elections, and computer viruses knocking out servers, it is possible that cyber-diplomacy will be discussed at the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly.

In 2013, a group of UN experts said cyberspace could only become stable and secure through international cooperation, and that “the foundation of this cooperation must be international law and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Secretary-General António Guterres in February said it was “high time” to have a discussion about the international legal framework in which cyberwars take place, and he urged the General Assembly to take it up.

“I don’t intend that the United Nations has a leadership role in this, but I can guarantee that the United Nations would be ready to be a platform in which different actors could come together and discuss the way forward,” Mr. Guterres said.

A senior United Nations relief official has called for greater international attention to the plight of millions in Africa’s Mali, where worsening intercommunal violence and armed group attacks are complicating an already complex humanitarian emergency.

UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller – who just wrapped up a four-day mission to Mali – underscored that food, security, protection and peace are of paramount importance.

“Violence and intercommunal clashes have gotten worse here this year […] and this has huge implications, including humanitarian organizations not able to access areas and people in need of assistance,” she said, in Mopti (central Mali), where nearly a million people desperately await protection and humanitarian assistance.

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of internally displaced persons in Mali has sharply increased since the beginning of the year to over 75,000 by the end of July. In all, some 5.2 million people are estimated to be in dire need of assistance across the country, the number represents one in four Malians.

In Mali, Ms. Mueller also met with humanitarian organizations to better understand the challenges they face in providing life-saving and protection assistance and with local authorities, stressing the need to scale up conflict resolution efforts, access to basic social services and protection.

“Despite huge challenges – security, access, funding and administrative impediments – they are continuing their critical work and reaching those who most need humanitarian assistance,” she said, praising the work of relief organizations.

During a wrap-up press conference in the Malian capital, Bamako, Ms. Mueller said she had been encouraged by the initiatives and the planning being made by the Government, development and aid actors to work together in ensuring that the immediate needs are addressed as well as helping restore and build livelihoods.

“This is essential to ensure our work today helps make communities more resilient and better able to survive future crises,” she said.

At a time, when the level of need is higher than at any point since the crisis erupted in 2012, the response has been hampered by a severe lack of resources. According to latest figures, only 31 per cent of the $330 million sought by the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan has been received.

Governments are being pressed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to act now to safeguard younger generations from the immediate and long-term impacts of so-called “extreme weather events.”

The devastating floods in southern India, wildfires ravaging the western United States and the record-breaking heatwaves baking countries across much of the northern hemisphere, are putting children in immediate danger while also jeopardizing their future, the agency said in a press release issued on Friday.

 “In any crisis, children are among the most vulnerable, and the extreme weather events we are seeing around the world are no exception,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Director of Programmes.

“Over the past few months, we have seen a stark vision of the world we are creating for future generations. As more extreme weather events increase the number of emergencies and humanitarian crises, it is children who will pay the highest price.”

These extreme weather events during June and July, causing injury, death, environmental damage and other losses.

UNICEF stated that although individual weather events cannot specifically be attributed to climate change, their increasing frequency and severity correspond with predictions of how human activities are affecting the global climate.

These conditions have numerous impacts on children. For example, they contribute to the increased spread of “childhood killers” such as malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea, UNICEF explained.

Heatwaves put children at risk, with infants and younger children more likely to die or suffer from heatstroke, while floods threaten their survival and development through causing injuries or death by drowning, or compromising water supply and damaging sanitation facilities. Meanwhile, poor families are particularly affected by drought, which can lead to crop failure, livestock deaths and loss of income.

“As the world experiences a steady rise in climate-driven extreme weather events, it is children’s lives and futures that will be the most disrupted,” Mr. Chaiban continued. “Therefore, it’s vital that Governments and the international community take concrete steps to safeguard children’s future and their rights. The worst impacts of climate change are not inevitable, but the time for action is now.”

UNICEF has proposed an “agenda for action on climate change.” It calls for strengthening health systems to respond to a changing climate and more extreme weather events.

Other measures include increasing investment in climate resilient agricultural, water and sanitation services; educating children and young people about the issue of climate change, and reflecting their needs in national strategies and action plans.