Sentinel Digital Desk
There are five types of chemical agent banned for use in warfare. Blood agents are toxic and fast acting. Phosegene Gas and Hydrogen Cyanide are two kinds of blood agent. Blister agents like Mustard Gas can be fatal if ingested or inhaled. Nerve agents like VX and Sarin gases break down the neurotransmitters that make organs function. Nettle agents irritate the skin, but do not cause blisters.
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits the use of non-metallic fragments in warfare due to their undetectability through X-rays. These fragments are known to cause unnecessary suffering, as surgeons are required to manually search for them within the body.
The absence of a comprehensive prohibition on anti-personnel mines in the 1979 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons resulted in the creation of the Ottawa Treaty, which successfully implemented such a ban. However, it's important to note that this treaty does not encompass anti-tank mines, booby traps, and remote mines.
The use of weapons designed just to burn or set fire to large areas which may be full of civilians are also prohibited. The ban covers actual flame, heat or chemical reactions, so this limits the use of flamethrowers, napalm, and white phosphorus. You can still use a flamethrower, you just can't use it near civilians, which, on today's battlefield, might be a tall order.
This pertains to any laser explicitly intended to cause permanent blindness, but it explicitly states that if the laser incidentally causes blindness, one cannot be held accountable for it.
Technically, this covers "bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body," which were developed by the British in India at the time of the Hague Convention in 1899.
In one of the earliest recorded arms agreements, the Holy Roman Empire and France mutually pledged to abstain from employing poisoned bullets against each other. During that era, soldiers stored bullets in unsanitary conditions, including alongside corpses. It would take over a hundred years before the medical community recognized the concept of disease-causing germs, making the infections caused by such bullets a grave threat to wounded troops.
A cluster bomb disperses multiple projectiles upon impact with the intention of causing harm or destruction to individuals and vehicles. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions imposed a ban on these weapons for two primary reasons. Firstly, due to their broad area effects, they cannot differentiate between civilians and military targets. Secondly, cluster munitions leave behind significant quantities of hazardous unexploded ordnance, posing a serious threat even after the conflict has ended.
The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention marked a significant milestone as the first treaty to comprehensively outlaw an entire category of weapons. It explicitly forbids the creation, manufacturing, and accumulation of biological and toxin weapons. However, it lacks a governing body empowered to ensure adherence to its provisions.