The Convention on Conventional Weapons embodies some of the most fundamental principles in the law of armed conflict and occupies a vitally important place in the field of international humanitarian law.

The treaty aims to provide rules for the protection of military personnel and civilians from injury or attack by particularly injurious weapons such as landmines and boby traps which often kill or wound non-combattants long after a conflict is over. The full title of the treaty is the 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 CCW 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.

The United States is a party to the CCW. Over the past several years the U.S. and like-minded nations have been actively seeking progress within the CCW on the humanitarian problems caused by long-lived and non-detectible anti-vehicle and anti-personnel landmines.

Purpose The 1980 United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) regulates the use in armed conflict of certain conventional arms deemed to cause excessive suffering to combatants or indiscriminate harm to civilian populations.

Principle The CCW is based upon the principle of international law that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited, and on the principle that prohibits the employment in armed conflicts of weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering.

Background The CCW grew out of the 1974-1977 Diplomatic Conference that led to the adoption of the 1977 Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, reflecting basic customary law concepts related to the methods and means of warfare.

Structure The Convention serves as a framework for five protocols, each dealing with a specific weapon or class of weapons.

• Non-detectable Fragments -- Protocol I prohibits the use of "any weapons the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays."
• Landmines and Booby-traps -- Protocol II (Amended) regulates the use of landmines, booby-traps and other devices. In 1996, an amended Protocol II was adopted to significantly strengthen the restrictions on mines, booby-traps and other devices
• Incendiary Weapons -- Protocol III regulates the use of "any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons . . ."
• Blinding Lasers -- Protocol IV prohibits 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 . . ."
• Explosive Remnants of War -- Protocol V addresses the threat posed by explosive remnants of war to civilians and civilian economies after conflicts end.