Prohibited Means and Methods of Warfare in Armed Conflicts

113 RESUMÉ Prohibited Means and Methods of Warfare in Armed Conflicts Law of armed conflicts is a part of international public law. The first multilateral agreements about waging the wars were accepted in the end of 19th century. St. Petersburg Declaration (1868) and the conventions and declarations of the First and the Second Hague Conferences (1899, 1907) has already contained the basic and general principles of the law of armed conflicts and also the bans of concrete types of conventional weapons. In spite of the Briand-Kellogg's Pact, which has prohibited the use of force, armed conflicts still occur both on international level and on non-international level. Because of the technical progress, the wars started to be much more dangerous not only for the soldiers but also for the civilians. Such situation evoked the need of acceptation new rules regulating armed conflicts and prohibiting certain means and methods of warfare. After the Second World War Geneva Conventions (1949) granted a wide protection to all the victims of war. In 1977 two Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions were approved. The second one of them regulates the conduct of belligerent powers during the armed conflict of non-international character. Various number of conventional weapons has been used in armed conflicts. The..