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 |