Suchergebnisse

There have been significant developments in recent years in the efforts to reduce the death, injury and suffering caused by anti-personnel landmines. These weapons are regarded as one of the major threats to civilians once an armed conflict has ended. Anti-personnel mines have killed and injured large numbers of men, women and children and slowed the rebuilding of war-affected countries. The longterm and indiscriminate effects of these weapons led to the adoption in 1997 of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction.Anti-personnel mines, however, are one part of a broader problem. Modern armed conflict leaves behind a wide array of explosive ordnance which, like antipersonnel mines, causes large numbers of civilian casualties and has severe socioeconomic consequences for years, and sometimes for decades, after the hostilities end. Until recently, international humanitarian law contained very few requirements to lessen the impact of these 'explosive remnants of war' (ERW).

AbstractThe potential use of nuclear weapons has long been a global concern. This article highlights the principal rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) governing the conduct of hostilities applicable to nuclear weapons, and the issues and concerns that would arise were such weapons ever to be used again, in particular the severe and extensive consequences for civilians, civilian objects, combatants and the environment.In recent years, increased attention has been paid to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. Based on what has been learned from extensive research on the humanitarian and environmental effects of nuclear weapons since they were first used in 1945, and the accompanying implications for IHL, it seems appropriate to conclude that the use of nuclear weapons in or near a populated area would amount to an indiscriminate attack and that there should also be a presumption of illegality with regard to the use of nuclear weapons outside such areas.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has played a key role in the effort to ban anti-personnel landmines and in offering aid to victims of war and internal armed violence. This book provides an overview of the work of the ICRC in this area from 1955 through 1999, and gives additional commentary on general issues of the methods and means of warfare. It contains International Committee of the Red Cross position papers, working papers, and speeches made by its representatives to the international meetings convened to address the mines issue, including the 1995–96 Review Conference of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and the diplomatic meeting which adopted the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel mines. These documents provide critical insights into the development of international humanitarian law on this issue, and will form a basis for discussions on landmines and other conventional weapons