A/HRC/17/44 G. 1. Prohibited weapons Introduction 171. Available information suggests that over the past few decades Colonel Qadhafi has acquired and stockpiled a large arsenal of weapons. 141 There have been allegations made about the use of weapons in a manner contrary to international law. The Commission has only had access to a limited number of victims and has not been able to access sites involved in reports of prohibited weapons to collect forensic evidence or to collect evidence from victims‟ wounds or other medical records in a comprehensive manner. However, the Commission‟s preliminary investigations indicate matters of concern worthy of further consideration. In this section, the Commission considers both weapons prohibited as a matter of international law and lawful weapons allegedly used in a manner so as to be unlawful under international law. 2. Applicable law 172. International humanitarian law prohibits the use of means and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. 142 As the ICRC publication Customary International Humanitarian Law highlights, there are differing views as to whether this rule renders a weapon illegal or whether a weapon is illegal only if a specific treaty or customary rule prohibits its use (p. 242). The International Court of Justice in the Nuclear Weapons case, however, undertook its analysis on the basis of the rule itself,143 without requiring treaty law and this approach has been adopted by the Commission here. Other rules of general application in this area include the prohibition of the use of weapons which are by their nature indiscriminate, arising out of the duty to direct hostilities to legitimate military objectives. 173. As noted in paragraph 63 of the present report, Libya has ratified certain weapons conventions, but is not a party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, 1977, or to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 2008. The general norms from customary international humanitarian law must thus be applied to these situations. In addition to the general principles noted above, there are some other specific rules of customary international humanitarian law relating to for instance, landmines (requiring particular care to minimize their indiscriminate effects),144 and expanding bullets.145 141 142 143 144 145 Peter Bouckaert, “Qaddafi‟s Great Arms Bazaar”, Human Rights Watch, 8 April 2011. Available from www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/04/08/qaddafis-great-arms-bazaar. Also, Philippe Gros, “De Odyssey Dawn à Unified Protector: bilan transitoire, perspectives et premiers enseignements de l‟engagement en Libye”, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, note No. 04/11. Available from www.frstrategie.org/barreFRS/publications/notes/2011/201104.pdf. See rule 70, ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, p. 237. Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1996 ICJ, para. 238, as referred to in ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, p. 243. See rule 81, ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law. Where landmines are used, particular care must be taken to minimize their indiscriminate effects. Rule 77 of the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law states that the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the body is prohibited in both international and noninternational armed conflict. In 2010, the Rome Statute was amended to include article 8, paragraph 2 (e) (xv), specifically prohibiting the use of “employing bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core or is pierced with incisions”. This amendment is not yet in force, but will enter into force for a State party one year 49