Over the past decade, the use of incendiary weapons, including white phosphorus, in Afghanistan, Gaza, Syria, and elsewhere has generated serious concerns for dozens of states parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Many of these states call for strengthening CCW Protocol III, the only international instrument dedicated to regulating incendiary weapons. Because the CCW’s annual meetings operate by consensus, however, a small number of countries have blocked progress, and the forum has become bogged down in a debate about whether to include incendiary weapons on the agenda. Instead of discussing whether to discuss these issues, states should be addressing how to deal with the weapons’ humanitarian consequences.

This report aims to refocus the debate on incendiary weapons by highlighting the horrific human cost of their use. A humanitarian approach more appropriately frames the issue in terms of human suffering and underscores the urgent need to revisit and strengthen the existing international law governing these weapons.