The convention covers land mines, booby traps, incendiary devices, blinding laser weapons and clearance of explosive remnants of war.

Some provisions also apply after open hostilities has ended, such as the rules in protocols II and V about minimizing the dangers from mines and other ordnance.

[2] CCWC lacks verification and enforcement mechanisms and spells out no formal process for resolving compliance concerns.

A state-party can refute its commitment to the convention or any of the protocols, but it will remain legally bound until one year after notifying the treaty depositary, the UN Secretary-General, of its intent to be free of its obligations.

[citation needed] The CCWC consist of a set of additional protocols first formulated on October 10, 1980, in Geneva and entered into force on December 2, 1983.

The protocol applies when the "primary effect" is to injure by non-detectable fragments and does not prohibit all use of e.g. plastic in weapons design.

At the cessation of active hostilities, Protocol V establishes a responsibility on parties that have used explosive weapons to assist with the clearance of unexploded ordnance that this use has created.

[14] As of 2017, the CCW has failed to achieve consensus to open negotiations on adding a compliance mechanism to help ensure parties honor their commitments.