Practice Relating to Rule 85. The Use of Incendiary Weapons against Combatants
In 1973, with respect to Resolution 2932 A (XXVII) in which the UN General Assembly asked States to comment on the report of the UN Secretary-General on napalm and other incendiary weapons and all aspects of their possible use, Australia stated that it “reaffirms the principles [in international agreements prohibiting the employment in war of weapons calculated to cause unnecessary suffering] and their application to the use of all classes of weapons, particular napalm”. It further stated that it “does not possess aerial or mechanized napalm-type weapons and does not intend to acquire them”.
Australia’s Commanders’ Guide (1994) states, with reference to the 1980 Protocol III to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons: “There are no prohibitions on the use of incendiary weapons against combatants.”