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It prohibits the use of chemical weapons and biological weapons, but has nothing to say about production, storage or transfer. Later treaties did cover these aspects -- the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
A number of countries submitted reservations when becoming parties to the Geneva Protocol declaring that they only regarded the non-use obligations as applying to other parties and that these obligations would cease to apply if the prohibited weapons were used against them.
History
Although it is popularly believed that the German army was the first to use gas it was in fact initially deployed by the French. In the first month of the war, August 1914, they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. Chemical weapons were used by Germany in Ypres, Belgium in 1915 by releasing chlorine gas. The Treaty of Versailles included some provisions that banned Germany from either manufacturing or importing chemical weapons. Similar treaties banned Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary from chemical weapons.At the end of World War I, the Allies wanted to reaffirm the Treaty of Versailles, and the United States introduced the Treaty of Washington. The United States Senate gave consent for ratification but it failed to enter into force. France objected to the submarine provisions of the treaty and thus the treaty failed.
At the 1925 Geneva Conference for the Supervision of the International Traffic in Arms the French suggested a protocol for non-use of poisonous gases. Poland suggested the addition of bacteriological weapons. It was signed on June 17th.
Chemical weapons prohibitions
| Date | Name | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1675 | Strasbourg Agreement | The first international agreement limiting the use of chemical weapons, in this case, poison bullets. |
| 1874 | Brussels Convention on the Law and Customs of War | Prohibited the employment of poison or poisoned weapons, and the use of arms, projectiles or material to cause unnecessary suffering. |
| 1899 | 1st Peace Conference at the Hague | European Nations prohibited "the use of projectiles whose sole purpose is the release of asphyxiating or harmful gases" |
| 1907 | 2nd Peace Conference at the Hague | The Conference added the use of poisons or poisoned weapons. |
| 1919 | Treaty of Versailles | Prohibited poison gas in Germany (Added by E.Arms) |
| 1922 | Treaty of Washington | Failed because France objected to clauses relating to submarine warfare. |
| 1925 | Geneva Protocol | Prohibited the use of "asphyxiating gas, or any other kind of gas, liquids, substances or similar materials" |
| 1972 | Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention | No verification mechanism, negotiations for a protocol to make up this lack halted by USA in 2001 |
| 1993 | Chemical Weapons Convention Signed | Comprehensive bans on development, production, stockpiling and use of Chemical Weapons, with destruction timelines. |
External links
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Last updated on Monday July 07, 2008 at 02:10:42 PDT (GMT -0700)
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