France
Practice Relating to Rule 86. Blinding Laser Weapons
France’s LOAC Teaching Note (2000) includes blinding laser weapons in the list of weapons that “are totally prohibited by the law of armed conflict” because of their inhuman and indiscriminate character.
France’s LOAC Manual (2001) incorporates the content of Article 1 of the 1995 Protocol IV to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
The manual also includes blinding laser weapons in the list of weapons that “are totally prohibited by the law of armed conflict” because of their inhuman and indiscriminate character.
In 1995, in reply to questions in Parliament, the French President stated: “It should be stressed that France also subscribes to the objective of a prohibition on the deliberate blinding of persons as a method of warfare.”