Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention BTWC

A draft convention was submitted by the UK in 1969 to the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament and this gained support from first the USA and then from the Soviet Union. It is, however, evident that its content was considerably diluted in a bilateral negotiations between the USA and the Soviet Union who, consciously or unconsciously, gutted the draft treaty of some of its more important components (Sims, 2001). Nevertheless, this led to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) which opened for signature on 10 April 1972 and entered into force three years later on 26 March 1975. 

See, for instance. Article Vtll, para 22 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). For the CWC, with its supervisory organization the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the review conference mechanism is embedded in the powers and functions of the OPCW, namely in the role of the plenary body, the Conference of States Parties. Treaties without such supervisory bodies will be reviewed by the States Parties, see Article Xll of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). 

Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), Convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons and on their destruction-. Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). 

As a consequence, the first significant discussions of a ban on chemical weapons since the Geneva Protocol of 1925 started soon after the conclusion of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) in 1972. During negotiations at UN disarmament conferences in Geneva, exploratory initiatives by Japan (1974) and the United Kingdom (1976) were proposed for a chemical weapons ban. 

By the early 1990s, US intelligence was able to prove what it had suspected all along The Soviet Union had been producing weaponized bacteria at Sverdlovsk, in clear violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) which it had signed and ratified years before in 1972. 

Although the analysis dates from the 1940s, the final ALSOS mission report is still a useful case study today, in that it illustrates an analysis of whether a country s BW activities are defensive or offensive. This is a crucial distinction, because if BW activities are assessed as defensive, the program is permitted under current international law as embodied in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), but if the activities are assessed as offensive, the program is prohibited by the BTWC. 

TH DIRECTORATE. The 15th Directorate of the Soviet Ministry of Defense (MOD) was established in accordance with a 25 June 1973 decision of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee (No. 444-138) and an 11 January 1973 MOD decree (No. 99). The directorate was responsible for implementing the offensive Soviet biological weapon (BW) program in violation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC). 

TOXIN. A poisonous substance that occurs naturally in animals, bacteria, or plants. Examples include botulinum toxin, ricin, and tbe tri-chothecene mycotoxins. Some toxins can be produced artificially through chemical synthesis. The military relevance of toxins was recognized during World War I, when the U. S. Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) conducted research and production of selected toxins at the Catholic University of America. Weapons having toxins as their primary payload are controlled as both chemical weapons (CW) (under the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC]) and biological weapons (BW) (under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention [BTWC]). Toxins have also seen use as assassination weapons. See also JUGLONE SAXITOXIN. 

TRILATERAL PROCESS. During the early 1990s, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (and, after its dissolution, Russia), the United Kingdom, and the United States engaged in a secret diplomatic process known as the trilateral process. The United Kingdom and United States used this process in an attempt to clarify the nature of violations of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) that took place in the USSR and to verily future compliance with the BTWC by Russia. See also BIOPREPARAT. 

March The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons (Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, BTWC) enters into force. 10 April The United States accedes to the Geneva Protocol of 1925, 50 years after the treaty had opened for signature. 

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