Netherlands, Humanitair Oorlogsrecht: Handleiding, Voorschift No. 27-412, Koninklijke Landmacht, Militair Juridische Dienst, 2005, § 0471.
The manual further states that “[t]he question whether a non-lethal weapon can be used as a form of warfare will primarily depend on whether such a weapon”, inter alia, “is not prohibited under other regulations such as the permanently blinding weapons mentioned above”.
Netherlands, Declaration made upon acceptance of Protocol IV to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 25 March 1999.
One exception might be cases in which blinding an opponent with a highly discriminate weapon such as a laser would be more humane than using a different method or means. This instance could occur if, for example, a sniper were to hide himself in a civilian environment. In this case other, more conventional methods of disabling the sniper can be expected to cause a large number of civilian casualties that could be prevented through the use of a laser.
Netherlands, Working paper submitted to the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (First Session), UN Doc. CCW/CONF.I/MCIII/WP.1, 26 September 1995, p. 9.
It is prohibited to use laser weapons specially designed to cause permanent blindness. This means that lasers intended to blind personnel temporarily, known as dazzle lasers, are permitted. Guidance mechanisms such as target designation or ranging lasers are not prohibited, nor are directed-energy lasers, say, to disable.