International humanitarian law
International humanitarian law (IHL), also called the law of armed conflict or the law(s) of war, is the branch of international law that regulates conduct in an armed conflict (jus in bello). It protects persons who do not or who no longer participate in hostilities and restricts the use of means and methods of warfare by a party to an armed conflict.
Many treaties and rules of customary international law make up the corpus of IHL. The best known treaties are the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the two 1977 Additional Protocols. There are also many weapons-specific treaties, such as the 1868 Saint Petersburg Declaration (on exploding bullets), the 1899 Hague Declaration (IV, 3) concerning expanding bullets, the 1925 Geneva Protocol, and the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCCW) and its annexed protocols.
In its landmark study of customary international humanitarian law, published in 2005, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) identified 17 customary IHL rules that govern weapons directly.
Last updated on: 30 November 2013