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Chemical and biological weapons
29-10-2010 Overview
The international community banned the use of chemical and biological weapons after World War 1 and reinforced the ban in 1972 and 1993 by prohibiting the development, stockpiling and transfer of these weapons. Today’s advances in life sciences and biotechnology, aimed to benefit mankind, have increased concern that long-standing restraints on the use of chemical and biological weapons may be ignored or eroded.
The misuse of science or of scientific achievements to create weapons that poison and spread disease has always provoked alarm and abhorrence in the public mind. For centuries there have been taboos against such weapons, but the use of poisonous gas in World War I led to the first international agreement, the 1925 Geneva Protocol, banning asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and bacteriological methods of warfare.
The ICRC had summed up the public horror at the use of such weapons in its appeal in February 1918, calling them “barbarous inventions” that can “only be called criminal”.
Despite the huge loss of life and destructiveness of World War II, and the crimes committed against humanity, the main belligerents did not use chemical and bacteriological weapons against each other. That may have been due to a fear of reprisals using similar weapons, but the Protocol had nevertheless established a new and clear norm in international law.
The Protocol has been respected in nearly all of the hundreds of armed conflicts that have taken place since 1925. The handful of well known and high profile violations have provoked widespread international condemnation and in some cases criminal prosecutions.
The 1925 Protocol was a landmark in international humanitarian law. Further legal instruments followed in the form of Conventions adopted by States in 1972 and 1993.
The 1972 Convention, usually referred to as the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), was a major step towards the total elimination of these abhorrent weapons. As the use of such weapons was already banned by the 1925 Protocol, the Convention prohibited the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition, retention and transfer of such weapons, including their delivery systems, and required their destruction.
The Convention also required each country to enact national legislation to enforce its prohibitions. Regular review conferences of all signatories monitor compliance with the terms of the Convention and adopt recommendations to promote its application and effectiveness.
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was a similar legal development, extending the prohibition on use in the 1925 Protocol to the development, production, stockpiling, retention and transfer of chemical weapons, including their delivery systems. It also covered their destruction.
Because achievements in chemistry can bring such benefits to mankind, the Convention promotes and supervises the development of the chemical industry worldwide.
International verification measures are the responsibility of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), based in The Hague. It provides technical assistance to States in implementing the provisions of the Convention. Each State is also required to set up a national authority to ensure liaison and implementation.
The huge potential for both good and harm that major advances in the chemical and biological sciences bring, means that vigilance against the misuse of these advances to develop chemical and biological weapons remains vitally important.
In response to such concerns, the ICRC launched an appeal in September 2002 on “Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity”. It focused not only on existing capabilities for the misuse of science but also on emerging ones such as altering existing diseases to make them more harmful, the creation of viruses from synthetic materials and chemicals that alter consciousness, behaviour or fertility.
It called for renewed efforts to combat the emerging threats, in particular the mobilization of what it called the “web of prevention” – a global network of all those involved in life sciences and biotechnology – public, private, scientific and lay, who can have an impact on preventing the catastrophic consequences of unregulated biotechnological development.
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