Romania adhered to new CCW instruments - July 2003

On 27 June 2003, the Parliament of Romania has adopted the Law no. 287 on the adhesion to the Article 1 - as amended in Geneva on 21 December 2001, to the Protocol on Prohibitions and Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices (Protocol II) - as amended in Geneva on 3 May 1996 and to the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV), adopted in Vienna on 13 October 1995 of the Convention on Prohibitions and Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW). The Law has been promulgated by the Presidential Decree no. 416. and published in the Official Journal no. 505/July 14, 2003.

Amended Article 1 of the CWC stipulates the extension of the scope of application of the Convention and its Protocols to cover also non-international armed conflicts.

Protocol II as amended in 1996 provides for the extension of the scope of application to non-international armed conflicts and differentiates explicitly the restrictions and interdictions according to the type of the arms (mines, booby-traps, other devices). At the same time, Amended Protocol II prohibits the use of mines, bobby-traps or other devices against the civilian population and establishes norms on mines detectability, self-destruction, self-neutralization and self-deactivation.

Protocol IV on blinding laser weapons is one of the first international legal instruments prohibiting a class of weapons that was still in its conceptual stage, before becoming part of the armed forces equipment.

The Romanian authorities have initiated the procedure for the elaboration of the instruments of adhesion, to be deposited to the UN Secretary General. Romania's adhesion to these documents is part of the demarches aimed at the CCW universalization and represents an active contribution to the strengthening of the norms of the international humanitarian law. By adhering to the Amended Protocol II, Romania fulfilled the political commitment undertaken according to the preabular part of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personal Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) to which Romania is a State Party since 2001.

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