Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
Type	treaty
Publication date	October 10, 1980
Author(s)

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons

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
Drafted	September 10–28, 1979 and September 15 – October 10, 1980
Signed	April 10, 1981
Effective	December 2, 1983 (1983-12-02)
Condition	20
Original signatories	50
Parties	125 Complete List
Depositary	UN Secretary-General
Languages	Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish
Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons at Wikisource

The United Nations 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 landmines, booby traps, incendiary weapons, blinding laser weapons and clearance of explosive remnants of war.

Contents

The convention has five protocols:

• Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments
• Protocol II restricts landmines, booby traps
• Protocol III restricts incendiary weapons such as napalm
• Protocol IV restricts blinding laser weapons (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

Non-signatories

The protocol was not signed by the US when it used incendiary weapons against civilians in Iraq.

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