Refers to the effects of certain methods or means of warfare which uselessly aggravate the suffering of disabled persons. International humanitarian law forbids such methods and means.
OUTLINE
LEGAL SOURCEs
CASES
ICJ, Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion (Para. 78), p. 776
United States, Memorandum of Law: The Use of Lasers as Anti-Personnel Weapons (Paras. 4 and 8)
Israel/Lebanon/Hezbollah, Conflict in 2006 (Part I, Paras. 249-263)
United States, Surrendering in the Persian Gulf War
Afghanistan, Assesment of ISAF Strategy
Afghanistan, Code of Conduct of the Mujahideen (Art.41)
ECHR, Isayeva v. Russia (Paras. 19, 33, 165-167, 191-191)
Georgia/Russia, Human Rights Watch’s Report on the Conflict in South Ossetia (Paras. 8, 20-22, 28)
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
Suggested readings:
AUBERT Maurice, “The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Problem of Excessively Injurious or Indiscriminate Weapons”, in IRRC, No. 279, November-December 1990, pp. 477-497.
BOUTRUCHE Théo, L’Interdiction des Maux Superflus : Contribution à l’Étude des Principes et Règles Relatifs aux Moyens et Méthodes de Guerre en Droit International Humanitaire, Geneva, Thesis, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Université de Genève, 2008, 559 pp.
BRETTON Philippe, “La Convention du 10 avril 1981 sur l’interdiction ou la limitation de certaines armes classiques qui peuvent être considérées comme produisant des effets traumatiques excessifs ou comme frappant sans discrimination”, in AFDI, 1981, pp. 127-146.
COUPLAND Robin M., “The SIrUS Project: Towards a Determination of Which Weapons Cause ‘Superfluous Injury or Unnecessary Suffering’”, Geneva, ICRC, 1997, 43 pp. ICRC, Special Issue on Means of Warfare, IRRC, Vol. 87, No. 859, 2005, 604 pp.
COWLING M.G., “The Relationship between Military Necessity and the Principle of Superfluous Injury and Unnecessary Suffering in the Law of Armed Conflict”, in South African Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 25, 2000, pp. 131-160.
MACLEOD Iain J. & ROGERS Anthony P.V., “The Use of White Phosphorus and the Law of War”, in YIHL, Vol. 10 (2007), 2009, pp. 75-97.
MEYROWITZ Henri, “The Principle of Superfluous Injury or Unnecessary Suffering: From the Declaration of St. Petersburg of 1868 to Additional Protocol I of 1977”, in IRRC, No. 299, October 1994, pp. 98-122.