Rule 84. If incendiary weapons are used, particular care must be taken to avoid, and in any event to minimise, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

Practice

Volume II, Chapter 30, Section A.

Summary

State practice establishes this rule as a norm of customary international law applicable in both international and non-international armed conflicts.

International armed conflicts

The discussions in the 1970s at the UN General Assembly and during the diplomatic conferences that led to the adoption of the Additional Protocols and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons show that the use of incendiary weapons is a sensitive issue. The controversy was occasioned in particular by the effects of these weapons during the Vietnam War, and a large number of States advocated a total prohibition of their use. The majority of those that did not subscribe to a total ban did urge strict restrictions in order to avoid civilian casualties.

The treaty provisions finally adopted by consensus in Protocol III to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons reflect the latter trend, not only by repeating the principle of distinction applicable to the use of all weapons, but also by prohibiting the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons against military objectives located within a concentration of civilians and by restricting the use of other incendiary weapons within such a concentration. Fewer than half of all States are party to this treaty.