- Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the
Geneva Protocol , is a treaty prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons. It was signed atGeneva onJune 17 ,1925 and was entered into force onFebruary 8 ,1928 .It prohibits the use of
chemical weapon s andbiological weapon s, but has nothing to say about production, storage or transfer. Later treaties did cover these aspects -- the 1972Biological Weapons Convention and the 1993Chemical 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 byGermany inYpres ,Belgium in 1915 by releasingchlorine gas . TheTreaty of Versailles included some provisions that banned Germany from either manufacturing or importing chemical weapons. Similar treaties bannedAustria ,Bulgaria , andHungary 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. TheUnited 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
External links
* [http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/sbtwc/keytext/genprot.htm The text of the protocol]
* [http://www.sipri.org/contents/cbwarfare/cbw_research_doc/cbw_historical/cbw-hist-geneva-parties.html List of member states and reservations] bySIPRI
* [http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/gas.htm Weapons of War: Poison Gas]
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