Regulating explosive remnants of war

In: Yearbook of international humanitarian law, Volume 5, p. 360-374

Abstract

There have been significant developments in recent years in the efforts to reduce the death, injury and suffering caused by anti-personnel landmines. These weapons are regarded as one of the major threats to civilians once an armed conflict has ended. Anti-personnel mines have killed and injured large numbers of men, women and children and slowed the rebuilding of war-affected countries. The longterm and indiscriminate effects of these weapons led to the adoption in 1997 of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction.Anti-personnel mines, however, are one part of a broader problem. Modern armed conflict leaves behind a wide array of explosive ordnance which, like antipersonnel mines, causes large numbers of civilian casualties and has severe socioeconomic consequences for years, and sometimes for decades, after the hostilities end. Until recently, international humanitarian law contained very few requirements to lessen the impact of these 'explosive remnants of war' (ERW).