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The Report on Human Rights Violations Committed by the
Armenian Armed Forces during Azerbaijan & Armenia War 39

Weapons that are by nature indiscriminate are those that cannot be directed at a
military objective or whose effects cannot be limited as required by international
11
humanitarian law. Accordingly, the use of use of poison or poisoned weapons,
biological weapons, chemical weapons, riot control agents as a method of warfare,

methods of warfare that destroy the natural vegetation; bullets which expand
or flatten easily in the human body; bullets which explode within the human
body; weapons the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which are
not detectable by X-rays in the human body; booby-traps which are in any way
attached to or associated with objects or persons entitled to special protection
under international humanitarian law or with objects that are likely to attract
civilians, laser weapons that are specifically designed, as their sole combat function
or as one of their combat functions, to cause permanent blindness to unenhanced
vision is prohibited.
12
The cluster munitions used by the Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijan
were one of the said indiscriminate weapons, and any use, production, storage
and transfer of such munitions was prohibited by the UN Convention on
Cluster Munitions that was signed in 2008 and entered into force in 2010. The
reason for the prohibition is that cluster munitions “cause unacceptable harm”
to civilians. This is because cluster munitions have broad range of impact and
do not discriminate between civilian and military targets, which makes them
more likely to cause more civilian casualties. Second, the use of cluster munitions
leaves many dangerous, unexploded submunitions behind. Such remnants cause
civilian casualties and injuries even after decades, hindering economic and social
development as well as causing many other serious problems.
13
As reminded by Human Rights Watch, parties of the armed conflicts are bound
by the Geneva Conventions and to customary international law and obliged to
comply with the fundamental principles of the international humanitarian law. It

is stipulated in both Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of ICC that
11 https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule71#:~:text=Weapons%20
That%20Are%20by%20Nature%20Indiscriminate,-Related%20Practice&text=Rule%20 71.,-
The%20use%20of&text=State%20practice%20establishes%20this%20rule,and%20 non%2Din-
ternational%20armed%20conflicts
12 https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/tur-irrc_857_henckaerts.pdf
13 https://www.clusterconvention.org/