Means and Methods of

Warfare

Dr. Md Abdur Rahim Mia

Professor
Department of Law
Rajshahi University
Phan Thị Kim Phúc at about age nine running naked on a
road after being severely burned on her back by a South
Vietnamese Napalm attack – June 8, 1972
 Scope
• Definitions
• The Basic Premise
• Fundamental Principles of IHL
• Prohibited Weapons
• Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW)
Convention
• So what about Nuclear Weapons?
• Questions
Definitions: Means and Methods

• “Means” of Warfare refer to the

weapons of war.

• “Methods” of Warfare refer to the

tactics and strategy applied in
military operations to weaken the
adversary.
 The Basic Premise
• International Humanitarian Law (IHL) limits the
means and methods used to wage war.

These restrictions apply to the type of weapon

used, the way they are used, and the general
conduct of all those engaged in the Armed
conflict

The ICRC plays a leading role in the promotion

and development of law regulating the use of
certain weapons.
 St Petersburg Conference of 1868
• The object of war is to weaken the military
forces of the enemy, and not to
senselessly cause suffering to innocent
millions..
• “The only legitimate object which States
should endeavour to accomplish during war is
to weaken the military forces of the enemy”

• This object would be exceeded by the

employment of arms which uselessly
aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or
render their death inevitable

• The use of such arms would “be contrary to

the laws of humanity”.
AP I (1977), to Geneva Conventions.

Art 35: Basic Rule

1. In any armed conflict, the right of the
Parties to the conflict to choose
methods or means of warfare is not
unlimited.

2. It is prohibited to employ weapons,

projectiles and material and methods
of warfare of a nature to cause
superfluous injury or unnecessary
suffering.
Hague IV Regulations, 1907
• Art 22: “The right of belligerents to
adopt means of injuring the enemy is
not unlimited”
• Art 23: “It is especially forbidden to
employ arms, projectiles, or material
calculated to cause unnecessary
suffering."
UN Secretary General’s Bulletin
No.13, (1999) Para 6.1:

The right of a UN force to choose

methods and means of combat is
not unlimited.
• Rome Statute 1998 Art 8(2)(b)(xx) - employing
weapons, projectiles and methods of warfare
which are of a nature to cause superfluous
injury or unnecessary suffering will be a
crime….

• ICRC Customary Rules 11, 12, 70 and 71.

• Rule 70. The use of means and methods of warfare
which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or
unnecessary suffering is prohibited. Rule 71. The use of
weapons which are by nature indiscriminate is
prohibited.
International Humanitarian Law:

UN Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the

Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) which
may be deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have
Indiscriminate Effects.
• Protocol I: Non-Detectable Fragments (10 October
1980).
• Protocol II: Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of
Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices (10 October
1980).
• Protocol III: Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of
Incendiary Weapons (10 October 1980).
• Protocol IV: Blinding Laser Weapons (13 October 1995).
• Protocol V: Explosive Remnants of War (28 Nov 03).
• 1976 UN Convention on the Prohibition of
Military or Any other Hostile use of
Environmental Modification Techniques
(ENMOD).

• 1971 UN Convention on Production and

Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and
Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.

• 1993 Convention on Prohibition of the

Development, Production, Stockpiling and use
of Chemical Weapons and on their
Destruction.
• 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court

• 1999 UN Secretary General’s Bulletin on Observance by

UN Forces

• 1978 Red Cross Fundamental Rules of IHL Applicable

in Armed Conflicts

• 2005 Customary Rules of International Humanitarian

Law by ICRC containing 161 Rules divided into 6 Parts

• 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions

 Fundamental Principles of IHL
• IHL regulates Armed Conflict in two ways
1. By imposing minimum standards of protection for victims
of armed conflict and 2. By restricting the permissible means
and methods of warfare, including the types of weapons that
can be deployed

There are four main Principles of IHL:

Military Necessity

Distinction

Proportionality

Limitation (Superfluous Injury / Unnecessary Suffering)

 Basic IHL Principles Relating to
Means and Methods of Warfare
• Military Necessity: Combatants / Fighters may use
that force not forbidden by IHL that is necessary to
secure the prompt submission of the other side.
 Basic IHL Principles Relating to
Means and Methods of Warfare
• Distinction
A distinction should be made at all times between the
combatants, fighters and the military objectives that
can legitimately be targeted and the persons and
objects that are protected.
 Basic IHL Principles Relating to
Means and Methods of Warfare
• Proportionality: There should be reasonable
relationship between the expected gains of a military
operation and its cost in terms of human suffering and
destruction.
 Basic IHL Principles Relating to
Means and Methods of Warfare
• Superfluous Injury / Unnecessary Suffering: The
right of any party to an armed conflict to chose the
means and methods of warfare is limited by IHL.
 Prohibited Weapons

• IHL prohibits weapons that cause

superfluous injuries or unnecessary
suffering.

• There are several agreements in

international law that prohibit or limit the
use of such weapons.
1.Expanding Bullet
Expanding bullets are those that expand or
flatten easily in the human body
For example: bullets with a hard envelope
that does not entirely cover the core, or is
pierced with incisions. "Dum-Dum bullet"

Rule: The Hague Declaration of 1899

concerning Expanding Bullets:use of
expanding bullets (in armed conflict) is
prohibited.
• Customary Rule 77. The use of bullets
which expand or flatten easily in the
human body is prohibited.
2. Poison/Poisoned Weapons
• Article 23 (a), Hague Regulations of 1907, ICRC
Customary Rule 72 and ICC Art 8 (2)(b)(xvi)
prohibits the use of poison or poisonous
weapons.

• Poisoning of drinking water or foodstuff likely to

be used by enemy forces, and use of poisoned
weapons or poisoned arrows or spears.

• The Rome Statute of International Criminal Court (ICC)

Article 8 (2) (b) (xvii):

“employing poison or poisoned weapons” is a war crime

 3. Exploding Projectiles
• The 1868 St Petersburg Declaration:
It is not permitted to use projectiles weighing below 400
grams, which are either explosive or charged with
fulminating or inflammable substances.
An incendiary or exploding bullet is intended to cause harm
through burn injury or explosive effect.
• Customary Rule 78. The anti-personnel use of bullets which
explode within the human body is prohibited.
 4. Chemical/ Biological Weapons
• A chemical weapon is a munition or device that is
specifically designed to cause harm through the release
of toxic chemicals
• The toxic chemicals that can cause death, temporary
incapacitation or permanent harm to animals or humans
are also considered to be chemical weapons.
• In 1925 governments adopted the Geneva protocol which
outlaws the use of poison gas and bacteriological methods of
warfare

• Strengthened by the Biological weapons convention of 1972

and the Chemical weapons convention of 1993
•The use of
chemical
weapons in
warfare was
totally banned
in 1993, in
Chemical
Weapons
Convention.
Rules relating to Chemical and Gas
Weapons : It is prohibited to:
1. use poisonous or asphyxiating gas
2. use chemical weapons
3. conduct military preparations to use
chemical weapons
4. develop, produce, acquire, stockpile
transfer chemical weapons
5. assist, encourage or induce any
person to engage in such activities
• Treaty Law
• Geneva Protocol, 1925
• Biological weapons convention, 1972
• Chemical Weapons Convention, 1993
• Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions,
1977 – art. 36
• Customary law
• Poison and poisoned weapons
• Biological weapons
• Chemical weapons
 Biological Weapons
• Definition: A Biological or bacterial weapon is
a quantity of biological agents or toxins that is
not justified for peaceful or protective
purposes and equipment designed to use
these agents or toxins in armed conflict.
• In 1971, the UN Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development,
Production and Stockpiling of
Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons
and on Their Destruction.
• The Biological Weapon (BW)
Convention--entered into force in
1975.
• Signatories to BWC undertook ‘never in any circumstances to
develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain’
biological weapons designed to be used for hostile purposes or
in armed conflict, and to destroy and not to transfer existing
weapons.
• ICRC Customary Rule 73
 Conventional Weapons
• International humanitarian law prohibits or restricts
the use of certain conventional weapons in order to
lessen the impact of war on civilian populations.

Basic rules
Customary law contains certain basic rules, such as:
• the prohibition of weapons that strike indiscriminately
• the prohibition of weapons of a nature to cause
superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering
• the prohibition of arms that render death inevitable
• International humanitarian law bans or restricts certain
types of conventional weapons in order to protect
civilians from their indiscriminate effects and to spare
combatants from excessive injuries that serve no military
purpose. One of the main legal instruments for this is the
1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
5. Certain Conventional Weapons
(CCW) –
• The terms conventional weapons or conventional
arms generally refer to weapons that are in
relatively wide use that are not weapons of mass
destruction (e.g. nuclear , chemical, and biological
weapons). Conventional weapons include small arms
and light weapons, sea and land mines, as well as
(non-nuclear) bombs, shells, rockets, missiles and
cluster munitions. These weapons use explosive
material based on chemical energy, as opposed to
nuclear energy in nuclear weapons.
• The acceptable use of all types of conventional
weapons in war time is governed by the Geneva
Convention. Certain types of conventional weapons
are also regulated or prohibited under the United
Nations Convention on certain Conventional
Weapons. Other are prohibited under the Convention
on Cluster Munitions.
• The United Nations Convention on Certain
Conventional Weapons (CCW or CCWC), has
five protocols:
• Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable
fragments
• Protocol II on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the
Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices
• Protocol III on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the
Use of Incendiary Weapons
• Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons
• Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War
 5. Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW)
– Booby-traps
• Article 6 (1) of Protocol II of the 1980
CCW prohibits in all circumstances, the
use of booby-traps
• CCW Amend. Prot II (1996) Art 7(1)
*ICRC Customary Rule 80.
In any way attached to or associated with
internationally recognized protective
emblems, sick, wounded or dead persons;
burial or cremation sites; kitchen utensils or
appliances, except in military locations.
Designed to cause superfluous injury or
unnecessary suffering.
Article 3 of the CCW Protocol II disallows the
use of booby-traps, directly or indiscriminately
against civilians.

The use of booby-traps which are in any way

attached to or associated with objects or
persons entitled to special protection under
IHL or to objects that are likely to attract
civilians is prohibited.
 Non-detectable Fragments

• It is prohibited to use any weapon, the primary effect

of which is to injure by fragments which in the
human body escape detection by X-rays, as they
render medical treatment almost impossible and
thereby cause unnecessary suffering

Plastic Hand Grenade

• Such fragments cannot be detected by X-
rays, they render medical treatment almost
impossible and thereby cause
unnecessary suffering.
• Protocol I of the 1980 Convention on
Certain Weapons prohibits weapons
having Non-detectable Fragments

• Customary rule
• Rule 79. The use of weapons the primary
effect of which is to injure by fragments
which are not detectable by X-rays in the
human body is prohibited.
 Incendiary weapons

• It is prohibited in all circumstances to make the

civilian population/ objects the targets of attack by
incendiary (Napalm) weapons

• Combatants are not protected from Incendiary

Weapons
• Customary Rule
• Rule 84. If incendiary weapons are used,
particular care must be taken to avoid, and in
any event to minimize, incidental loss of
civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to
civilian objects.
• Rule 85. The anti-personnel use of incendiary
weapons is prohibited, unless it is not feasible
to use a less harmful weapon to render a
person hors de combat.
 Blinding Laser Weapons

• The use and transfer of laser weapons ‘specifically

designed, as their sole combat function to cause
permanent blindness’ are banned.
 Customary Rule 86. The use of laser weapons that are specifically
designed, as their sole combat function or as one of their combat
functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced vision is
prohibited.

Lasers can be used by military for range finding and target

designation
 Land Mines

• Mines are the greatest violators of International

Humanitarian Law
Mines may be described as fighters that never miss,
strike blindly, do not carry weapons openly, and go on
killing long after hostilities are ended.
 Land Mines
• It is forbidden to use weapons which ‘cause
superfluous injuries or unnecessary sufferings’.
• In the conduct of hostilities, parties to a conflict must
always distinguish between civilians and combatants.
 Anti Personal Mines
• In accordance with the Ottawa Treaty of 1997,
Member States (133 signatories) are prohibited from
using, developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling,
retaining or transferring APMs.
 Anti Personal Mines
• States not bound by the Ottawa Treaty are to:
take care to minimize the indiscriminate effects of anti-
personal mines;
record their placement, as far as possible;
ensure that at the end of active hostilities, mines are
removed or rendered harmless to civilians.
• Antipersonnel landmines are indiscriminate weapons
that have killed and maimed primarily civilians. The
weapon cannot distinguish between a soldier during
conflict and a civilian stumbling upon one even
decades later. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty
comprehensively bans the use, production,
stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines, and
requires states to destroy their stockpiles within four
years and to clear all mined areas within 10 years.
The treaty also contains provisions to assist landmine
survivors and to support mine risk education
programs. A total of 162 states have joined the Mine
Ban Treaty and are making progress in achieving a
mine-free world.
• Wars should end when the fighting stops. Yet anti-personnel
mines kill and maim long after conflicts are over. Anti-
personnel mines cannot distinguish between civilians and
soldiers. They continue to kill and maim civilians long after
the fighting has ceased. Vast areas of valuable land are put
out of use, destroying livelihoods. Communities can be
affected for decades after the end of an armed conflict.

• Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, 1997

• Protocol II to the CCW on prohibitions or restrictions on the
use of mines, booby-traps and other devices, as amended in
1996
• Customary law
• Landmines
 Anti-vehicle Mines

It is prohibited to use anti-vehicle mines:

1. Against the civilian population.
2. The method of delivery which cannot be
directed at a specific military objective.
3. Which is not directed against a military
objective and can be expected to cause
incidental loss of civilian life or damage.
4. That are designed to cause unnecessary
suffering.
 Explosive Remnants of War

• Protocol V to the CCW has been designed to

eradicate the deadly threat that explosive remnants
of war pose to civilians and to humanitarian
personnel working in post-conflict settings.
Cluster Munitions
• A cluster munition/bomb consists of two primary elements:
1. A container or dispenser; and
2. Submunitions, called bomblets.
Sub-munitions are often brightly coloured, they particularly attract children who pick them up as toys,

and explosion rips off their hands or legs or kills them .

•A cluster bomb
may contain as
many as 250-550
sub-munitions.

•The failure rate of

sub-munitions
could be about 10
%.
• There are four main categories of sub-
munition:
1. Anti-personnel
2. Anti-tank
3. Combined Effects Munition
(anti-tank with incendiary capacity)
4. Landmines
• The use of cluster munitions has
resulted in unnecessary civilian death
and suffering.
• Cluster munitions are indiscriminate,
and are against the rule of distinction,
and proportionality.
• These weapons are so inaccurate and
so unreliable--they pose risks to
civilians, either during strikes, post-
conflict or both.
 Cluster Munitions (Cont)
• The US, during operation ‘Desert Storm’, the Gulf
War in 1991, dropped 47,167 bombs containing
13,167,544 bomblets.

• In 1999, in the former Yugoslavia the US, UK, and

Netherlands dropped 1,765 cluster bombs,
containing 295,000 bomblets.

• During 2001- 2002, the US dropped 1,228 cluster

bombs containing 248,056 bomblets in Afghanistan

• In 2003 in Iraq the US and UK used nearly 13,000

cluster bombs, containing 1.8 to 2 million bomblets in
the three weeks of combat
 Cluster Munitions (Cont)

• The Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted in

Dublin by 107 states on 30 May 2008
• The Convention prohibits all use, stockpiling,
production and transfer of defined categories of
Cluster Munitions
• It provides assistance to victims, clearance of
contaminated areas and destruction of cluster
munitions
• At the moment there are 108 signatories and 49
countries have ratified the convention
So what about Nuclear Weapons?
• There is no comprehensive or universal ban in
international law on the use of nuclear weapons.

• However, in July 1996 the International Court of

Justice concluded that international humanitarian
law did apply to the use of nuclear weapons
So what about Nuclear Weapons?
• The Court found that the limitations imposed by international
law on the means and methods of waging war applied to
nuclear weapons and thus:

• “The principles of distinction and proportionality and the

prohibition on causing superfluous injury or unnecessary
suffering, apply to the use of nuclear weapons”.
• Nuclear weapons have severe consequences in humanitarian
terms. These consequences result from the heat, blast and
radiation generated by a nuclear explosion and the distances
over which these forces may be spread. As was seen from the
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the detonation of
a nuclear weapon in or near a populated area can cause
enormous numbers of casualties and extensive damage to
civilian infrastructure. It can also destroy medical infrastructure
and services making the provision of aid and assistance almost
impossible in the immediate aftermath. Many of those who
survive the blast will fall victim to radiation sickness in the weeks
and months that follow while others face an increased risk of
developing certain cancers later in life.
• There is no comprehensive or universal ban
on nuclear weapons in international law,
although in 1996 the International Court of
Justice concluded that the use of nuclear
weapons would be generally contrary to the
principles and rules of international
humanitarian law (IHL). The Court also
concluded that States were under an
obligation to pursue and conclude
negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament.
• In 2011, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement made an historic appeal on nuclear weapons. In it,
the Movement called on States to ensure that nuclear
weapons are never again used, regardless of their views on
the legality of such weapons, and to urgently pursue and
conclude negotiations to prohibit the use of and completely
eliminate nuclear weapons through a legally binding
international agreement. This appeal was based on the direct
experience of the ICRC and the Japanese Red Cross in
responding to and treating the survivors of the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like many States and organizations
the ICRC, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
more generally, believe that preventing the use of nuclear
weapons – including through the development of a legally
binding treaty to prohibit and eliminate such weapons – is the
only way forward.
• On 6 August 1945 a 13 kiloton atomic bomb exploded over
Hiroshima, Japan. This was followed on 9 August by the
explosion of a 21 kiloton bomb over Nagasaki. To date, these
have been the only times a nuclear weapon has been used in
armed conflict. The following figures reflect the scale of the
casualties and damage that resulted from the explosions.
• Deaths:
• Hiroshima: 100,000 – 140,000 killed*
• Nagasaki: 60,000 – 70,000 killed*
• Total area destroyed by heat, blast and fire:
• Hiroshima: 13 sq km (including 4 sq km completely destroyed by
a firestorm)
• Nagasaki: 6.7 sq km
• Impact on medical services in Hiroshima:
• 270 out of 300 doctors killed or injured
• 1,654 out of 1,780 nurses killed or injured
• 112 out of 140 pharmacists killed or injured
• * Number of deaths attributable to the atomic bombs by the end
of 1945.
• Estimates are based on various surveys conducted by the
Japanese authorities and by scholars between August 1945 and
August 1946.
Autonomous weapons: What role for
humans?

• Fully autonomous weapons, also known as "killer robots,"

would be able to select and engage targets without human
intervention. Fully autonomous weapons do not exist yet,
but they are being developed by several countries and
precursors to fully autonomous weapons have already been
deployed by high-tech militaries. Some experts predict that
fully autonomous weapons could be operational in 20 to 30
years. These weapons would be incapable of meeting
international humanitarian law standards, including the rules
of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity. The
weapons would not be constrained by the capacity for
compassion, which can provide a key check on the killing of
civilians. Fully autonomous weapons also raise serious
questions of accountability because it is unclear who should
be held responsible for any unlawful actions they
commit. Human Rights Watch calls for a preemptive
prohibition on fully autonomous weapons.
• However, major concerns persist over whether a fully autonomous
weapon could make the complex, context-dependent judgements
required by international humanitarian law. For instance, in the heat
of battle, would an autonomous weapon be capable of distinguishing
between a civilian and a combatant? Would it be capable of
cancelling an attack that would have disproportionate incidental
effects on civilians? "This represents a monumental programming
challenge that may well prove impossible to achieve," added Ms
Lawand.
Already today, weapon systems are fitted with autonomous features.
However, the summary report underlines that as weapon systems
become more autonomous they may become less predictable,
raising doubts as to how they could be guaranteed to operate within
the law.
• The debate on autonomous weapons reaches far beyond legal and
technical complexities, raising fundamental questions about the role
of humans in taking lethal decisions in armed conflict. The decisive
question may very well be whether such weapons are acceptable
under the principles of humanity, and if so under what conditions.
 Rape as a Weapon of War

Five Sudanese women, raped during the Darfur conflict, rest at a refugee camp
• The laws of war prohibit the use of all weapons or tactics
of warfare that cause superfluous injury, unnecessary
suffering, or violate “principles of humanity and the
dictates of public conscience.’’ Rape is a prohibited
weapon or tactic of war under the criteria set by the laws
of war. Yet, despite the endemic use of rape as a
weapon, no state has ever been held accountable for the
use of rape as a prohibited weapon of war.
• Rape is the most powerful, cost-effective weapon
available for destroying the lives of “enemy” women,
families, and entire communities; demoralizing enemy
force; and, in some cases, accomplishing genocide.
Rape is being used more than any other prohibited
weapon of war including starvation; attacks on cultural
objects; and the use of herbicides, biological or chemical
weapons, dum-dum bullets, white phosphorus or blinding
lasers.
• It is time to punish states that use rape as an
unlawful weapon in armed conflict.
• The failure to treat war rape like other illegal
weapons or war tactics removes the central
protection of the laws governing the conduct of
war from rape victims, mainly women and girls.
Victims’ rights to accountability and reparations
for their injuries from the use of illegal weapons is
separate and in addition to their rights to
accountability for other crimes arising out of the
same act, including having perpetrators charged
with rape as a war crime, a crime against
humanity or a constituent element of genocide.
• Discrimination against women under the laws of
weaponry runs deep. The deliberate transmission
of bacteriological agents and toxins, including the
HIV virus, by any means in armed conflict violates
the prohibition on use of biological weapons.
Despite credible evidence of commanders
ordering HIV/AIDS infected soldiers to rape
“enemy women” in order to transmit HIV, there
have been no prosecutions or even investigations
for the deadly use of HIV as a biological weapon.
In conclusion: weapons should be
banned,
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects –no
effective distinction between civilians and
combatant

2. Their use is out of proportion with the

pursuit of legitimate military objective

3. Their use adversely affects the environment

in a widespread, long-term and severe
manner

4. Their use causes superfluous injury and

unnecessary suffering to the combatants.
• “Wars are not acts of God. They are
caused by man, by man-made
institutions, by the way in which man
has organized his society. What man
has made, man can change.”

- Frederick Moore Vinson

Thank you for your attention

Questions?