Geneva Protocol, chemical weapons

In 1925 in Geneva a protocol was signed, which forbade the use of bacteriological and chemical weapons, however this was not sufficient for the countries to stop further production, use and accumulation of chemical weapons. 

The United States had never ratified the Geneva Protocol, but nevertheless, President Roosevelt considered poison gas a barbarous weapon. Indeed, he had no intention, unlike his British counterpart, of authorising its use, much to the disappointment of the American Chemical Warfare Service. The American chemical weapons programme only thrived because of the fear of Japanese chemical warfare efforts indeed, American newspapers often printed reports of Japanese use of chemical warfare against the Chinese. Despite his reservations, Roosevelt issued a... 

It is vital to realise that the continued use of chemical weapons in the present conflict increases the risk of their use in future conflicts... In our view, only concerted efforts at the political level can be effective in ensuring that all the signatories of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 abide by their obligations. Otherwise if the Protocol is irreparably weakened after 60 years of general international respect, this may lead, in the future, to the world facing the spectre of the threat of chemical weapons.31... 

The ban on the use of chemical weapons, as codified in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, was considered to constitute international law, applicable to all states. Yugoslavia had ratified the protocol and at no time indicated any desire to repudiate its treaty obligations. In earlier years certain countries, including the United States which used massive quantities of tear gas in the Vietnam War, maintained the protocol did not ban the use of riot control agents. However, incapacitating agents, like BZ, were not included in this apparent exception. 

Nevertheless, it was events in Kurdistan in particular which fully illustrated both the ambiguity of what was banned and the absence of verification measures under the Geneva Protocol. Only use of chemical weapons was banned, not possession. In 1972 the United Nations General Assembly had adopted the Convention of the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Biological Weapons. Chemical weapons fell outside this convention and by 1988 it became clear that a chemical weapons treaty was urgently needed to place effective constraints on the proliferation of these weapons worldwide. 

Chapter 3 is concerned with the period between the two world wars. It describes the ways in which public opinion in the field of chemical warfare was aroused after the experience of the First World War, and to some extent how public opinion was then exploited. The chapter considers some of the effects of this including how it stimulated the negotiation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol, one of the most important pieces of conventional international law prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons. The chapter also considers the national policies and programmes relating to chemical warfare in the inter-war period and examines important chemical warfare discoveries in these decades. 

The Americans, who had not ratified the original Geneva Protocol in 1925, eventually ratified it in 1975. They then began an international campaign to limit the use of chemical weapons. 

Clearly the threat of chemical warfare is still very real, and research continues into defensive technology such as nerve gas vaccines and chemical sensors. The Chemical Weapons Convention came into effect in 1997 and it has taken the Geneva Protocol... 

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