law_war_manual15

1.6.2 Arms Control. Arms control is a broad term that includes a variety of efforts toreduce the numbers, types, performance characteristics, proliferation, testing, or other aspects ofcertain categories of weapons. Arms control usually proceeds through bilateral or multilateraltreaties. Arms control can also include non-binding political commitments, as well as reciprocalunilateral statements of intention or policy. The overall goals of arms control are to reduce: (1)the likelihood of war; (2) the consequences of war, should it occur; and (3) the costs of preparingfor war.Arms control is closely related to other concepts. For example, “non-proliferation” refersspecifically to efforts to restrict the spread of weapons (in particular, weapons of massdestruction). “Disarmament” refers to efforts to eliminate entirely, rather than to restrict, aparticular category of weapon. And sometimes States accept “confidence-building measures” (orconfidence, security, and transparency-building measures) that do not directly reduce thequantity or quality of armaments, but rather increase States’ certainty that ambiguous activitiesby other States are not secret actions in violation of arms control obligations.Arms control and the law of war frequently overlap in treaties. For example, the CCWProtocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons has both arms control and law of war provisions. 81Similarly, the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits, inter alia, the development andstockpiling of chemical weapons, but it is also directly relevant to the law of war because itprohibits the use of chemical weapons in all circumstances. 821.6.3 Human Rights Treaties. 83 Human rights treaties address primarily the obligationsof governments with respect to the rights of individuals, including their own nationals. 84 Forevery source of law that has application within the operational context. … Because the definition of operational lawis so broad, ample statutory and regulatory references serve to establish the substance of the practice.”).81 Refer to § 19.21.5 (CCW Protocol IV on Blinding Laser Weapons).82 Refer to § 6.8.3.2 (Prohibitions With Respect to Chemical Weapons).83 This section focuses on human rights treaties and not other sources of international human rights law. See, e.g.,Catherine Amirfar, Counselor for International Law, Department of State, Statement at 53rd Session of the U.N.Committee Against Torture, Nov. 3 – 28, 2014, Nov. 12, 2014 (“For example, the prohibition against torture iscustomary international law binding on all nations everywhere, at all times.”); U.N. International Law Commission,State responsibility: Comments and observations received from Governments, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/488, 133 (Mar.25, 1998) (“United States of America Subparagraph (e) [which would reflect a prohibition against conduct by wayof countermeasures in contravention of a peremptory norm of general international law] similarly does not provideuseful guidance in determining whether a countermeasure would be permissible. Just as there is little agreementwith respect to ‘basic’ human rights and political and economic ‘coercion’, the content of peremptory norms isdifficult to determine outside the areas of genocide, slavery and torture.”).84 See, e.g., Jimmy Carter, United Nations Remarks on Signing International Covenants on Human Rights, 1977-IIPUBLIC PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS 1734 (“The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights concerns what governmentsmust not do to their people, and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concerns what governmentsmust do for their people. By ratifying the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a government pledges, as a matterof law, to refrain from subjecting its own people to arbitrary imprisonment or execution or to cruel or degradingtreatment. It recognizes the right of every person to freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom ofreligion, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the rights of peaceful assembly,and the right to emigrate from that country.”).21