Submissions of the International Committee
of the Red Cross on the Prohibition or Restriction of Certain Conventional
Weapons Bill, 2007
The
International Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC") welcomes the
opportunity of expressing its views on the
The
object of the Bill presently tabled before the Defence Portfolio Committee is to
give effect to the 1980 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 ("CCW") and its first four Protocols.
The
A. International Humanitarian Law
The CCW
and its Protocols are considered part of International Humanitarian Law
("IHL"), a body of law that protects certain categories of persons
and limits the means and methods of warfare during times of armed conflict,
whether international or internal in nature. IHL does not question the
lawfulness of a conflict (jus ad bellum)
but seeks to apply humanitarian principles in warfare (jus in
The CCW and
its Protocols and this Bill seek to give effect to the underlying IHL principle
that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose methods or means
of warfare is not unlimited. It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles
and material and methods of warfare (i) of a nature to cause superfluous injury
or unnecessary suffering and (ii) that are inherently indiscriminate or have
indiscriminate effects.[2]
B. Compliance
The
There
are at present 102 State Parties to the CCW, 100 to Protocol I, 89 to Protocol
II, 87 to Amended Protocol II, 95 to Protocol III and 86 to Protocol IV.
The State Parties at the
Conference declared their commitment to implement fully
the CCW and the Protocols to which they are respectively party (Protocols I-IV
in the case of the Republic of South Africa), and to take all appropriate
steps, including legislative and other measures, as required, to prevent and
suppress violations of the CCW and Protocols by persons or on territory under
its jurisdiction or control. The measures envisaged included appropriate
measures to ensure the imposition of penal sanctions against persons who, in
relation to an armed conflict, contravene the prohibitions imposed by the CCW
and its Protocols. Each State Party is also to require that its armed forces
issue relevant military instructions and operating procedures and that armed forces
personnel receive training commensurate with their duties and responsibilities
to comply with the relevant provisions of the CCW and its Protocols.
The
passing of this Bill by the
C. Weapons regulated by the CCW and the
Protocols
Weapons
deemed to cause “superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” are considered
illegal under IHL. This IHL rule stems from the fundamental principle that the
only legitimate purpose of war is to weaken the military forces of an opponent.
[3]
Recently, the International Court of Justice stated that this rule constitutes
one of the inviolable principles of international customary law and is a
fundamental rule to be observed by all States.[4]
This rule of customary international law
constitutes one of the few measures intended to protect combatants from certain
weapons which are deemed abhorrent or which inflict more suffering than
required for their military purpose.
The
weapons the use of which has been restricted or prohibited under the CCW and
its Protocols fall foul of the basic IHL
rule, in that, by their use, they go beyond that which is necessary to weaken
enemy military forces. In addition,
given their indiscriminate effect when used, a number of these place civilians
and other protected persons in peril during armed conflict.
Protocol
I prohibits the use of any weapon, the primary effect of which is to injure by
fragments that are not detectable in the human body by X-rays.
Protocol
II, as amended in 1996, prohibits or restricts the use of landmines (both
anti-personnel and anti-vehicle), booby-traps and certain other explosive
devices. A booby-trap is any
device designed or adapted to kill or injure, and which functions unexpectedly
when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object (e.g. opens
a door). Other devices covered by the
Protocol are: manually emplaced munitions and devices, including
improvised explosive devices, which are designed to kill or injure and which
are actuated manually, by remote control or automatically after a lapse of
time.
Generally,
the Protocol prohibits (i) using mines, booby traps and other devices if they
are of a nature to cause unnecessary suffering or superfluous injury (ii) using
these weapons if they are designed to explode when detected by mine-detection
equipment, (iii) directing these weapons against civilians or civilian objects,
(iv) using these weapons indiscriminately.
Parties
to the conflict which use mines, booby traps and other devices must (i) remove them following the end
of active hostilities, (ii) take all feasible precautions to protect civilians
from their effects, (iii) give effective advance warning of any emplacement of
these weapons that may affect the civilian population, (iv) maintain records on
the locations of such weapons, (v) take measures to protect missions of the
United Nations, the ICRC and other humanitarian organizations against the
effects of these weapons. Under Article 14 of Protocol II, States Parties must
take all appropriate steps, including legislative and other measures, to prevent and suppress violations of the
Protocol by persons or on territory under its jurisdiction or control.
Finally, Protocol II also proscribes a number of
specific rules in relation to each of the weapons.
Protocol III regulates the use of Incendiary weapons,
which are understood to be weapons that are primarily designed to set fire to
objects or to burn persons through the action of flame or heat, such as napalm
and flame throwers. The Protocol prohibits in all
circumstances to use them against civilians. It is also prohibited to make any
military objective located within a concentration of civilians the object of
attack by air-delivered incendiary weapons. Finally, it is prohibited to make
forests or other kinds of plant cover the object of attack by incendiary
weapons unless they are being used to conceal combatants or other military
objectives.
Protocol
IV prohibits the use of laser weapons specifically designed to cause permanent
blindness, and the transfer of such weapons to any State or non-State entity. When
using laser systems, all feasible precautions must be taken to avoid permanent
blindness. These precautions must include training of armed forces and other
practical measures.
D. Suggested amendments to Bill
Definitions:
(i) To definition of blinding laser weapon add “laser”: ‘‘blinding
laser weapon’’ means a laser weapon
specifically designed, as its sole combat function or as one of its combat
functions, to cause permanent blindness to the naked eye;
(ii) Whilst there are definitions of explosive ordnance and unexploded
ordnance, these terms do not seem to appear in the main body of the law
itself.
Section 10 - Surrender of prohibited weapons and forfeiture to State: The situation could arise that 'persons' may be in
possession of weapons, or their component parts, prohibited by the legislation
yet fail to notify the relevant police official of such possession, as required
under Section 10 of the Bill. In these situations, it may be necessary to
provide specifically for search and seizure powers to the relevant police official "to enter and
inspect, at any reasonable time, any place in which said official believes on
reasonable grounds there is prohibited weapons or component parts
thereof".
Conclusion
The International
Committee of the Red Cross remains available to provide further details to the
Portfolio Committee as may be required.
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[1]
The
[2]
These underlying principles are to be found in the 1977 Additional Protocol I
to the 1949 Geneva Conventions to which the
[3]
See 1868
Declaration of
[4]
See Legality
of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports
1996, para. 79.