Explosive weapons are munitions activated by the detonation of a high-explosive substance, along with their delivery systems. Their primary effects are blast and fragmentation.

• The ICRC is particularly concerned about explosive weapons with a wide impact area when they are used in populated areas. This category includes large bombs and missiles, artillery, rockets, mortars and multi-barrel rocket launchers. 

  When used in towns and cities, where civilians and infrastructure are often located near military objectives, their effects can extend far beyond the intended target, with devastating consequences for the surrounding population.

• The wide area effects of explosive weapons are mainly due to their technical characteristics. The effects of these weapons may extend over a wide area due to:

  • High explosive payload: munitions (such as large bombs or missiles) produce powerful blasts and send deadly fragments flying outwards over a large radius.
  • Inaccuracy: some munitions or their delivery systems, such as traditional artillery and mortars, may be inaccurate and land far away from the intended target. 
  • Multiple munitions: systems like multi-barrel rocket launchers can simultaneously deliver multiple munitions over a wide area. 

  These weapons put everyone and everything within the wide impact area at risk. 

• IHL does not expressly prohibit the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects. However, the high risk of these weapons causing harm that extends beyond the targeted military objective makes it very difficult to use them in populated areas in compliance with important rules of IHL. These rules include: 

  • the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks – attacks that strike combatants and military objectives and civilians and civilian objects without distinction,
  • the prohibition against disproportionate attacks – attacks expected to cause incidental civilian harm that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, 
  • the duty to take all precautionary measures: parties to a conflict must take all feasible precautions to avoid – or at least minimize – incidental harm to civilians. 

• Today, heavy explosive weapons are used in populated areas in most conflict zones around the world. 

  According to the Explosive Weapons Monitor, harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure from the use of explosive weapons occurred in at least 65 countries, territories and maritime locations worldwide in 2025.

  Their use of these weapons causes considerable and predictable harm to civilians, including: 

  • Death and injury: civilians are killed or maimed.
  • Collapse of essential services: hospitals, power grids, and water systems are damaged or destroyed, cutting off access to water, sanitation, healthcare and electricity. Market systems providing food and other household necessities as well as telecommunications, financial systems and transportation are disrupted. 
  • Destruction: houses, schools, workplaces and cultural sites are destroyed.
  • Displacement: people flee for safety, often facing hunger, disease, and further violence.
  • Psychological distress: repeated bombings leave deep emotional scars, especially on children.
  • Contamination: unexploded ordnance blocks reconstruction and safe returns for years.
  • Environmental impact: these weapons may release hazardous substances that harm the natural environment and human health.

  The initial impact of these weapons can affect populations far beyond the blast zone and for extended periods of time. 

• Considering the levels of civilian harm, armed forces must reassess and adapt their choice of means and methods of warfare when fighting in populated areas. The ICRC has been calling since 2011 for the use of heavy explosive weapons to be avoided in populated areas as a matter of policy. A policy of avoidance means that these weapons should not be used in populated areas unless sufficient mitigation measures are taken to reduce their wide-area effects and the risk of civilian harm. 

  The ICRC has made detailed practical recommendations to political authorities and armed forces on how to achieve this. Additionally, the ICRC encourages all states that have not yet done so to endorse the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areaswithout delay and all endorsing states to implement it fully. The ICRC also encourages all parties to armed conflict, including non-state armed groups, to fully adhere to its commitments.

  States should make the export of explosive weapons with wide area effects conditional on recipients implementing limits on their use in populated areas. 

• The Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas was adopted in June 2022.  As of July 2026, 92 States from all regions have endorsed it.

  It is the first instrument committing states to restrict or refrain as appropriate from using explosive weapons in towns and cities where such use may cause civilian harm. By endorsing the Declaration, states also commit to: 

  • reviewing and adapting military policies and practices to avoid civilian harm,
  • strengthening training for armed forces,
  • gathering and sharing data on the impact of explosive weapons on civilians. 

  Endorsing the Declaration is not merely symbolic – it represents a commitment to change behaviour on the battlefield and make civilian protection a strategic priority. 

  The Declaration has a powerful potential – but only if states turn commitments into concrete changes in military training, planning, and operations.

• Precision guidance is an improvement, as greater precision and accuracy can help reduce the area effects of a weapon. However, using precision-guided munitions (PGMs) does not eliminate all the dangers of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas, particularly if large warheads (i.e. munitions that have a large blast-and-fragmentation radius) are used. 

  Additionally, the guidance systems for PGMs may be affected by weather conditions, jamming, cyberattacks or other types of interference.