The CCW is a framework convention with five protocols, which ban or restrict the use of various types of weapons that are deemed to cause unnecessary suffering, or affect either soldiers or civilians indiscriminately. The weapons covered include: weapons that leave undetectable fragments in the body (Protocol I - 1980); mines, booby-traps and other devices (Protocol II - 1980, amended in 1996); incendiary weapons (Protocol III - 1980); blinding laser weapons (Protocol IV - 1995); and explosive remnants of war (Protocol V - 2003). As of 1 February 2011, 113 States had joined the Convention.[1] The GICHD has observer status at the High Contracting Parties meetings taking place in the framework of the CCW.