EVIL Weapons Act 2088

(Effectively Victimising Innocent Life)

Principle

Any weapon that will harm people it was not intended to harm, is banned.

Articles

The following are banned:
1. Any weapon that leaves a dispersed dirty/radioactive footprint.
2. All biological weapons.
3. Chemical weapons that don’t become inert minutes after use.
4. Cluster bombs that don’t have a 100% record of total detonation.
5. Mines that don’t become totally inert after 3 years.
6. Autonomous killing machines that don’t stop killing after being a month out of contact with HQ. Includes nanites.

Notes

The Principle is the spirit of the law and is there to capture blatant unethical weaponry that is made but not necessarily listed anywhere. The Articles are the letters of the law that allows easier judgement on a specific list of banned items. It would be harder to list a weapon as a banned EVIL Weapon under the Principle alone but that is right and just, as it will allow a detailed complicated case to be brought and fought.

Writers Notes

For convenience of labelling, dirty bombs, biological agents, chemical agents and nuclear weapons have been labelled by society as Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMD’s. Most countries have agreed to not use them, out of a combination of self-interest and ideological objection, in various proportions. Generally no one wants to open the door by using them, as they will have them used on them.

Additionally, old fashioned landmines and cluster bombs have been banned as they harm innocents but they are not WMD’s. Also, if a nuclear bomb is technologically advanced to not leave a dispersed dirty footprint, I would consider that an acceptable weapon, even though it is a WMD. As WMD as a description is not useful to the scope of writing about conflict, I’ve invented the backronym ‘EVIL’ to describe weapons that are officially banned by the Humanitarian Alliance.