The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), formally the 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, was concluded in Geneva on 10 October 1980 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. It is a framework treaty under international humanitarian law (IHL) that operates through a series of annexed protocols, each addressing a specific category of weapon. States must consent to be bound by individual protocols separately, though most regimes now require adherence to at least two.
The CCW currently has five protocols:
- Protocol I (1980) on Non-Detectable Fragments.
- Protocol II (1980, amended 1996) on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices.
- Protocol III (1980) on Incendiary Weapons.
- Protocol IV (1995) on Blinding Laser Weapons.
- Protocol V (2003) on Explosive Remnants of War.
The Convention was originally drafted in response to debates during the 1974–1977 Diplomatic Conference that produced the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions, where states agreed conventional-weapons regulation needed its own forum. Its scope was extended in 2001 to cover non-international armed conflicts.
The CCW operates by consensus, which has both enabled broad participation and frustrated reformers. Since 2014, States Parties have convened a Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), which received a formal mandate in 2017. Progress has been slow: at the December 2021 Sixth Review Conference, efforts by a majority of states and the ICRC to begin negotiations on a legally binding instrument on autonomous weapons were blocked by a small number of militarily advanced states, including Russia. This deadlock has pushed some states and civil-society coalitions (notably the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots) toward pursuing alternative forums, such as the UN General Assembly First Committee, which adopted its first resolution on autonomous weapons in 2023.
The depositary is the UN Secretary-General; review conferences are held roughly every five years.
Example
At the CCW's Sixth Review Conference in December 2021, States Parties failed to agree on a negotiating mandate for a binding treaty on lethal autonomous weapons systems.