Iraq deposited its instrument of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions with the United Nations in New York on May 14, becoming the 83rd State Party. 

Iraq participated in some meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, but attended both the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the signing conference in Oslo in December 2008 as an observer. On November 12, 2009, Iraq signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in New York, becoming its 103rd signatory. 

During their 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 to 2 million submunitions. The U.S., UK, and France dropped 61,000 cluster bombs containing some 20 million submunitions on Iraq and Kuwait in 1991, while coalition forces used large numbers of cluster munitions in Iraq in 1991-2003. There is no definitive evidence that Iraq used cluster munitions in the past. 

For more information, see:

• Cluster Munition Monitor 2012 - ban policy profile on Iraq (Sep. 5, 2012)