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The use of explosive weapons, such as bombs, rockets, and mortar and artillery shells, in cities, towns and villages and in other populated areas has devastating humanitarian consequences. Explosive weapons act mainly through the projection of blast and fragmentation within an area. Their use, in populated areas, causes severe suffering to civilians, both in terms of death and serious injury resulting directly from the explosion, and in terms of damage to property and public infrastructure, which can indirectly affect civilian well-being and survival, sometimes for many years after a conflict has ended. Explosive weapons also leave behind explosive remnants that pose a threat to populations until those remnants are removed. In recent years, there has been growing intent among international policymakers to address this humanitarian concern. In response, UNIDIR launched the Norms on Explosive Weapons project in August 2012. This study is the main output of the project. It is a survey and reference work of existing legal and policy standards on explosive weapons. The study analyses how explosive weapons are regulated in international law and policy today, what constraints existing standards place on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas and how civilians are protected against the effects of explosive weapons. A better understanding of the existing regulatory framework can assist policymakers in their efforts aimed at enhancing the protection of civilians, including through the development of stronger international standards. The study finds that the regulation of explosive weapons under international law and policy is fragmentary and incoherent. Explosive weapons are addressed in a myriad of legal and policy texts under different terms and definitions. The study examines instruments relating to ammunition stockpiling and the transport of dangerous goods; to the control of major conventional weapons, small arms and light weapons; to terrorism; to law enforcement and human rights; and to the protection of civilians and the conduct of hostilities. Some standards in these issue areas are evidence of concern at the risks to human health associated with the use, stockpiling and transport of explosive weapons, but terms and definitions used in these standards split up the category of explosive weapons on relatively arbitrary grounds. The dominant notions tend to cover only part of the spectrum of explosive weapons, are not specific to explosive weapons, and are, at times, overlapping and ambiguous.

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Combatants and noncombatants (International law) --- Civilians in war