Any device or material designed, constructed or adapted to kill or injure and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless objects or performs an apparently safe act. Booby-traps also include manually-emplaced devices designed to kill, injure or damage and which are actuated by remote control or automatically after a lapse of time. Their use is prohibited by precise rules.

See also Mines; Explosive remnants of war

OUTLINE

Chapter 9, aa) mines

LEGAL SOURCE

CIHL, 80

DOCUMENT

Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby–Traps and Other Devices, as amended on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II to the 1980 Convention)

CASES

ICRC, IHL and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts

United States, War Crimes Act

Iran/Iraq, UN Security Council Assessing Violations of International Humanitarian Law

UN, Guidelines for UN Forces

Israel, House Demolitions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Israel/Lebanon/Hezbollah Conflict in 2006

ICRC, Customary International Humanitarian Law

BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES

ROGERS Anthony P.V., “Mines, Booby-Traps and other Devices”, in IRRC, No. 279, November-December 1990, pp. 521-534.