Banned Weapons Too Brutal for Modern Warfare

The brutality of war has always been the norm through the history. The course of history has witnessed with different wars that have been armed with different weaponry that have left an everlasting impact. However, even though warfare and conflicts are notoriously chaotic and destructive, there have been instances when the world held a pause and said that some weapons overstepped the line of doomed means of a war. From this awareness the UN Convention on Prohibitions or Restriction of Certain Conventional Weapons, Which Considered as Excessively Harmful or Which Have Indiscriminate Effects, known as the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons or CCW, was formed.

The CCW performs a very significant mission the mission of which is narrowing the use of arms, which can be considered too cruel for modern warfare. Those that use such weapon are exposed to the charges of conducting war crimes. However, the question remains: what are those weapons and why was it then considered as a bridge too far?

Under the the CCW, those weapons which the banned is specific to five protocols target various aspects of warfare regarded as unacceptable by the international community. Let's move into the specifics of every protocol and find out what made those directions prescribed.

Article One of the CCW places a ban on explosives or ammunition, which causes injuries through ordinary fragments, which cannot be traced by a magnet or X-ray scanning. While fragmentation grenades have been known to be used by armed forces for a long time, using high fragmentation grenades and bullets with poor ballistic characteristics, that cause casualties with unusual blood loss, are prohibited by this protocol.

Protocol Two deals with a mine, a booby trap, and other war gadgets. Landmines, which have a reputation for killing civilians long after fighting has ended, are adhered to the strictest of regulations. Moreover, the protocol bans the use of booby traps in different contexts, including medical facilities and toys meant for children, which points to their uncivilized way of thinking.

This protocol also applies to incendiary weapons, which are designed to create fire or heat and use it as their main offensive element. Protocol prohibits such arms using against civilians and civilian objects recognizing their indiscriminate and long-term effect that is physical and psychological.

The fourth protocol is supposed to govern the application of blinding lasers weapons that are developed for the purpose of inflicting the permanent blindness to the adversary. The protocol allows the use of laser weapons for blindings with accidental effects, but forbids the deliberate use of such weapons for similar purposes, indicating the necessity of minimizing the disastrous effects of these weapons on the battlefield.

Discarded combat residues, namely undetonated landmines and cluster bombs, represent a major danger to the civilian populations after the ending of hostilities. Protocol Five's aims to prevent the further escalation of the scourge are accomplished via demining to safeguard civilians' lives and livelihoods.

Along with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), other international agreements and conventions deal with the use of prohibited weapons in warfare. Peace can finally be achieved when chemical weapons, biological weapons, and dirty bombs be banned according to the different agreements, which represent the global agreement not to use the weapons of mass destruction and indiscriminate violence.

While the number of weapons piles up, so does the number of challenges arisen, thus laws are suggested for the new threats as well. The new weapons like as lethal autonomous weapons, that at first look like sci-fi stories, are a signal that the need for preventive measures to adapt to the increasing modernization of warfare.

The UNCCW is characterized as a core attempt that tries to ease the damages, and protect civilians in the course of war. International community can do this through banning cruel and indiscriminate weapons and establishing norms that they have to be used in an appropriate manner. These protocols will follow the principles of humanity and dignity during the fight. Evolution of war means that the ending up of the weapons with any side causing the extreme suffering and destruction must progress as well.