Incendiary weapons produce heat and fire through the chemical reaction of a flammable substance. They cause terrible burn wounds and damage to civilians and civilian objects, often leading to long term harm and psychological trauma.
In the past 15 years incendiary weapons were used in Afghanistan, Gaza, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
Currently, international law prohibits the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons in ‘concentrations of civilians’, but is not as strong for ground-launched weapons. At the same time, many states believe the rules do not apply to munitions that were not ‘primarily designed’ as incendiary weapons but have the same effect nonetheless.
PAX position
PAX calls on states to:
- Acknowledge the humanitarian harm caused by incendiary weapons
- Condemn the use of any type of incendiary weapon by any actor, and
- Calls on states to use the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) to strengthen existing rules on incendiary weapons.
Further reading
- PAX: Put out the fire. Strengthening International Law and Divestment Policies on Incendiary Weapons (December 2021)
- Human Rights Watch: Myths and realities about incendiary weapons
- PAX general statement to the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the CCW November 2018
- CCW Protocol III (Protocol on Prohibitions or restrictions on the use of incendiary weapons)
- Human Rights Watch: They Burn Through Everything – The Human Cost of Incendiary Weapons and the Limits of International Law
Contact
Roos Boer, boer@paxforpeace.nl
Program leader Humanitarian Disarmament
- Statement on Incendiary Weapons, UN General Assembly First Committee (October 8th, 2021)
- PAX general statement to the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the CCW, November 2019
- PAX general statement to the Meeting of High Contracting Parties to the CCW November 2018
- PAX statement to The fifth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), December 2016
- PAX general statement to the Convention on Conventional Weapons Meeting of High Contracting Parties, Geneva, 12 November 2015