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 applies two general customary rules of international humanitarian law to specific weapons. These customary rules are (1) the prohibition on the use of weapons that are indiscriminate and (2) the prohibition on the use of weapons of a nature to cause unnecessary suffering or superfluous injury. The Convention is comprised of a framework instrument and five individual protocols that regulate specific categories of weapons. Although it contains detailed rules for specific weapons that raise humanitarian concerns, the Convention does not lessen the obligation of states to refrain from using weapons not covered by the Convention, but which would nonetheless violate customary rules of international humanitarian law.
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