Geneva, 10 October 1980
Protocol IV,
Vienna, 13 October 1995
Protocol II, as amended,
Geneva, 3 May 1996
Objectives
The aim of the Convention and its Protocols is to provide new rules for the
protection of military personnel and, particularly, civilians and civilian
objects from injury or attack under various conditions by means of fragments
that cannot readily be detected in the human body by X-rays, landmines and booby
traps, and incendiary weapons and blinding laser weapons.
Key Provisions
This Convention serves as an umbrella for protocols dealing with specific
weapons. The Convention and its annexed Protocols apply in the situations common
to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 for the Protection of War Victims,
including any situation described in Additional Protocol I to these
Conventions.
Protocol I on Non-Detectable Fragments prohibits the use of any weapon the
primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape
detection by X-rays.
Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and
Other Devices was amended on 3 May 1996 to strengthen its provisions.
It extends the scope of application to cover both international and internal
armed conflicts; prohibits the use of non-detectable anti-personnel mines and
their transfer; prohibits the use of non-self-destructing and
non-self-deactivitating mines outside fenced, monitored and marked areas;
broadens obligations of protection in favour of 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 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, heat or a combination
thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the
target.
Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons prohibits the use of laser weapons
specifically designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat
functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision, that is to the
naked eye or to the eye with corrective eyesight devices. The High Contracting
Parties shall not transfer such weapons to any State or non-State entity.
CONVENTION
| Entry into force: 2 December 1983 |
PROTOCOL IV
| Entry into force: 30 July 1998 |
PROTOCOL II, AS AMENDED
| Entry into force: 3 December 1998 |