Sweden
Practice Relating to Rule 80. Booby-Traps
Sweden’s IHL Manual (1991) states that booby-traps cannot be “used against civilian populations or individual civilians, which is in full agreement with [the 1997 Additional Protocol I] (Art. 51)”. It adds: “Should it be necessary to use booby-traps against objectives within populated areas, special restrictions on delivery exist to protect the civilian population.” It further states:
During the conflicts of recent years it has been possible to discern an increasing use of booby-traps. It has become common to use booby-traps even against persons and objects already afforded protection under earlier conventions … This has led to an increased terror effect in warfare, but with little or no military significance.
The manual refers to Articles 6 and 7 of the 1980 Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Upon acceptance of the 1996 Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Sweden stated: “[T]he provisions of the amended Protocol which by their contents or nature may be applied also in peacetime, shall be observed at all times.”