Cluster Munition Coalition

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For other uses, see CMC.

The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) is an international civil society movement campaigning against the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are widely stockpiled by more than 70 states and are documented to have caused significant civilian deaths and injuries and have frequently been used indiscriminately during conflicts.

The CMC, formed in November 2003, is a network of civil society organizations, including NGOs, faith-based groups and professional organizations. It includes large worldwide organizations like Amnesty International, Handicap International and Human Rights Watch, as well as nationally based organizations such as the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.

All of these organizations share a common goal of preventing the humanitarian and development impacts from cluster munitions and providing assistance to the victims and survivors of cluster munitions as well as ensuring their inclusion in society. Through their activities, the member organisations that make up the CMC have researched the effects of cluster munitions on civilians. Organisations and individuals that make up the CMC also work directly to address the effects of cluster munitions through the course of their work in conflict zones, providing assistance to victims, clearing areas contaminated by cluster munitions, investigating human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.

Members of the CMC network work together on an international campaign calling on governments to conclude by 2008 an international treaty banning cluster munitions and to introduce a moratorium on use of the weapon until this treaty is in force.

The CMC is an example of the emerging model of international diplomacy that involves the coordination of global grassroots initiatives to promote a specific goal engaging in an international diplomatic process in a partnership with like-minded states.