Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) is a United Nations arms control treaty concluded in Geneva on the 10th of October 1980. It seeks to prohibit or restrict weapons considered excessively injurious or indiscriminate, covering landmines, booby traps, incendiary devices, blinding laser weapons, and the clearance of explosive remnants of war.
The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons entered into force on the 2nd of December 1983. As of the end of July 2024, it has 128 state parties.
The CCW has five protocols. Protocol I restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments; Protocol II restricts landmines and booby traps; Protocol III restricts incendiary weapons; Protocol IV restricts blinding laser weapons (adopted in Vienna on the 13th of October 1995); and Protocol V, adopted on the 28th of November 2003, addresses clearance of explosive remnants of war.
The failure to reach consensus within the CCW on a total ban on anti-personnel landmines led directly to the Ottawa Treaty. CCW Protocol II regulates rather than bans landmines, so states seeking a complete prohibition negotiated the Ottawa Treaty outside the CCW framework.
The CCW lacks verification and enforcement mechanisms and has no formal process for resolving compliance concerns. A state wishing to exit the treaty remains legally bound for one year after notifying the UN Secretary-General of its intent to leave.
In 2016, CCW states parties established an open-ended Group of Governmental Experts to discuss lethal autonomous weapon systems, a process that began in 2014 under the convention's framework. The group has addressed international humanitarian law, accountability, and possible regulations, but as of 2021 most major powers oppose an international ban.