The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), concluded at
Geneva on October 10, 1980, and entered into force in December 1983, seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain
conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate. The full title is Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. The convention covers
land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatic ...
s,
booby trap
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
s,
incendiary device
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, t ...
s, blinding
laser weapons and clearance of
explosive remnants of war.
Objectives
The aim of the Convention and its Protocols is to provide new rules for the protection of
civilians
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
from injury by weapons that are used in armed conflicts and also to protect
combatant
Combatant is the legal status of an individual who has the right to engage in hostilities during an armed conflict. The legal definition of "combatant" is found at article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. I ...
s from unnecessary suffering. The convention covers
fragments that are undetectable in the human body by
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30  ...
s,
landmines and
booby trap
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
s, and
incendiary weapons, blinding
laser weapons and the clearance of explosive remnants of war. Parties to the convention must take legislative and other actions to ensure compliance with the convention.
CCWC along with the
Chemical Weapons Convention
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for ...
(CWC) serves as an umbrella for protocols dealing with specific weapons. The Convention and its annexed Protocols apply in all types of armed conflict, both international and non-international. This was not the case when the convention was first adopted, but the scope was expanded by two conferences in 1996 and 2001. Some provisions also apply after open hostilities has ended, such as the rules in protocols II and V about minimizing the dangers from
mines and other
ordnance.
CCWC lacks verification and enforcement mechanisms and spells out no formal process for resolving compliance concerns. A state-party can refute its commitment to the convention or any of the protocols, but it will remain legally bound until one year after notifying the treaty depositary, the UN Secretary-General, of its intent to be free of its obligations.
Adoption and entry into force
The CCWC consist of a set of ''additional protocols'' first formulated on October 10, 1980, in Geneva and entered into force on December 2, 1983. As of the end of October 2020, there are 125 state parties to the convention.
Some of those countries have only adopted some of the five protocols, with two being the minimum required to be considered a party.
The convention has five protocols:
*Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable
fragments
*Protocol II restricts
landmines,
booby traps
*Protocol III restricts
incendiary weapons
*Protocol IV restricts blinding
laser weapon
A laser weapon is a directed-energy weapon based on lasers. After decades of R&D, directed-energy weapons including lasers are still at the experimental stage and it remains to be seen if or when they will be deployed as practical, high-perfo ...
s (adopted on October 13, 1995, in
Vienna)
*Protocol V sets out obligations and best practice for the clearance of explosive remnants of war, adopted on November 28, 2003, in Geneva
Protocol II was amended in 1996 (extending its scope of application), and entered in force on December 3, 1998. The amendment extended the restrictions on landmine use to internal conflicts; established reliability standards for
remotely delivered mines; and prohibited the use of non-detectable fragments in anti-personnel landmines (APL). The failure to agree to a total ban on landmines led to the
Ottawa Treaty.
Protocol I: Non-Detectable Fragments
Protocol I on Non-Detectable Fragments prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which are not detectable in the human body by X-rays.
The reason is that such fragments are difficult to remove and cause unnecessary suffering. The protocol applies when the "primary effect" is to injure by non-detectable fragments and does not prohibit all use of e.g. plastic in weapons design.
Protocol II: Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices
Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices was amended on May 3, 1996, to strengthen its provisions and extend the scope of application to cover both international and internal
armed conflicts
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. The protocol regulates, but does not ban,
land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatic ...
s. It prohibits the use of non-detectable
anti-personnel mine
Anti-personnel mines are a form of mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles. Anti-personnel mines may be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines; the latter ma ...
s and their transfer; prohibits the use of non-self-destructing and non-self-deactivating mines outside fenced, monitored and marked areas; prohibits directing mines and booby traps against civilians; requires parties to the conflict to remove mines and booby traps when the conflict ends; broadens obligations of protecting peacekeeping and other missions of the United Nations and its agencies; requires States to enforce compliance with its provisions within their jurisdiction; and calls for penal sanctions in case of violation.
Protocol III: Incendiary Weapons
Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons prohibits, in all circumstances, making the civilian population as such, individual civilians or civilian objects, the object of attack by any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of
flame
A flame (from Latin '' flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...
,
heat or a combination thereof, produced by a
chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and breakin ...
of a substance delivered on the target. The protocol also prohibits the use of air-delivered
incendiary weapons
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...
against military targets within a concentration of civilians, and limits the use of incendiary weapons delivered by other means. Forest and other plants may not be a target unless they are used to conceal combatants or other military objectives.
Protocol III lists certain munition types like
smoke shell
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage s ...
s which only have a secondary or additional incendiary effect; these munition types are not considered to be incendiary weapons.
Protocol IV: Blinding Laser Weapons
Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed to cause permanent
blindness
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...
. The parties to the protocol also agree to not transfer such weapons to any state or non-state entity.
The protocol does not prohibit laser systems where blinding is an incidental or collateral effect, but parties that agree to it must take all feasible precautions to avoid such effects.
Protocol V: Explosive Remnants of War
Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War requires the clearance of
UXO (unexploded ordnance), such as unexploded bomblets from
cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehic ...
s and abandoned
explosive weapons. At the cessation of active hostilities, Protocol V establishes a responsibility on parties that have used
explosive weapon
An explosive weapon is a weapon that uses high explosive to project blast and/or fragmentation from a point of detonation.
In the common practice of states, explosive weapons are generally the preserve of the military, for use in situations of ...
s to assist with the clearance of
unexploded ordnance that this use has created. Parties are also required, subject to certain qualifications, to provide information on their use of explosive weapons. Each party is responsible for the territory in their control after a conflict. The protocol does not apply to mines and other weapons covered by protocol II.
The protocol came about as a result of a growing awareness during the 1990s that the protection against unexploded ordnance was insufficient. The protocol was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in 2006.
Other proposals
As of 2017, the CCW has failed to achieve consensus to open negotiations on adding a compliance mechanism to help ensure parties honor their commitments, as well as negotiations on banning oversized-caliber bullets (5.56 or smaller). China and Russia have opposed restrictions on anti-vehicle mines, such as a requirement that such mines self-deactivate. In the 2010s the CCW opened talks on restricting
lethal autonomous weapon
Lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) are a type of autonomous military system that can independently search for and engage targets based on programmed constraints and descriptions. LAWs are also known as lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), auto ...
s. As of 2021, most of the major powers oppose an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons.
See also
*
United Nations Commission on Conventional Armaments, earlier attempt at regulation
References
External links
Conventionat the
United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law The United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law is a free online international law research and training tool. It was created and is maintained by the Codification Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs as a part of its m ...
Fact Sheetat the
Arms Control Association
The Arms Control Association is a United States-based nonpartisan membership organization founded in 1971, with the self-stated mission of "promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies."
The group publishes th ...
State parties to the treatyat the
International Committee of the Red Cross
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