ABSTRACT
This chapter draws extensively on two reports commissioned from the Omega Foundation by the European Parliament. 1 ,2 The use of sub-lethal weapons in complex situations, such as the Northern Ireland and IsraelPalestinian conflicts, to augment rather than replace lethal weapons, raises a number of concerns. For example, in practical terms this means that these weapons can undermine, rather than keep, peace. Unfortunately, any radicalization of protestors induced by crowd control weapons is usually interpreted as a hardening of the conflict by ringleaders and results in the next, more severe, phase of the ongoing military logic being deployed with predictable results. Thus in Israel during the second intifada, following its use of plastic-coated steel bullets which kill, the army escalated riot control measures to helicopter gunships, rocket grenades and dum-dum bullets, all of which are prohibited by International Human Rights Law.
