Are DU weapons illegal under current international law?
Using DU runs counter to the basic rules and principles enshrined in written and customary International Humanitarian Law. This relates among other things to: · The general principle on the protection of civilian populations from the effects of hostilities. · The principle that the right of the parties to an armed conflict to choose their methods or means of warfare is not unlimited. · The principle that the employment in armed conflicts of weapons, projectiles, and material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering is forbidden. · The prohibition of the use of poisonous weapons according to Art. 23 para.1 of the Hague Regulations and the rules of the Poison Gas Protocol. · The prohibition of widespread damage to the natural environment and unjustified destruction according to the Hague Regulations and the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. · The principle of ‘humanitarian proportionality’, which is contained in the St. Pe
