Conference on Disarmament in Geneva

The author, Professor Jiri Matousek, PhD, DSc., Dipl. Eng., was working nearly 40 years in R D for Chemical Corps, Medical Services and Civil Protection, inter alia as Head of the Czechoslovak NBC Defence R D Establishment (now Military Technical Institute of Protection, Bmo) and a member of the Czechoslovak Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He is currently chairman of the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board. 

The author is a Principal Research Scientist in Australia s Defence Science and Technology Organisation, and a Principal Fellow/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne. He was scientific adviser to the Australian delegation of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva from 1984 until 1992, and since then has been scientific adviser to the Austrahan delegation of the OPCW in The Hague. The views expressed in this chapter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian government. 

That the United States tends to think along these fines can be ascertained from the fact that, during the CWC negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, it strongly opposed the possibility that the Execntive Council or the Conference of the States Parties conld determine whether there had been a violation after the snbmission of the final report of the inspection team by the Director-General of the Technical Secretariat. As a resnlt, the CWC provides only that the Execntive Council shall review the final report and address any concerns as to whether any non-compliance has occnrred (Article IX, para. 22). 

Though the Cold War was continuing, the political situation led to increased activities in international negotiations. At the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, some attempts to negotiate a ban of CWs was begun, first as the Ad hoc... 

BZ was stockpiled by the US military forces in 1980. However, in 1992, a US delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva declared that their stocks of BZ were destroyed. It is not known if stocks of BZ are held by any other armed forces. The military use of BZ was limited to... 

These documents are filed with the Secretariat of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Other aspects may be included in the Headquarters Agreement by mutual agreement. 

Draft Convention for the Prohibition of Biological Methods of Warfare with Associated Draft Security Council Resolution tabled by the United Kingdom in the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament in Geneva on 10 July, 1969 , Cmnd. 4113 (1968-9) liv. 

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, shortly described as Convention on general and comprehensive prohibition of chemical weapons, or Chemical Weapons Convention, abbreviated as CWC, was adopted in 1992 after complex negotiations on the basis of The Conference on Disarmament (and previous multilateral negotiating fora in Geneva), lasting nearly a quarter of a century mainly due to the worldwide spread of chemical industry and relatively easy... 

Secondly progress towards the control of chemical weapons has been extremely slow. Under United Nations auspices various committees, based in Geneva, originally the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament now the Conference on Disarmament, have been engaged in seeking a chemical weapons convention... 

Martens, H. (1993) The German old chemical weapons programme, in T. Stock K. Lohs (eds.). The challenge of old chemical munitions and toxic armament waste, SIPRI, Stockholm (in press) Italian Working Paper (1991) Italian experience of the destruction of old and obsolete chemical weapons. CD/CW/WP. 375, Conference on Disarmament, Geneva. 

United Kingdom Working Paper (1988) Past production of chemical warfare agents in the United Kingdom. CD 856, Conference on Disarmament, Geneva. 

Peoples Republic of China Working Paper (1992) Some information on discovered chemical weapons abandoned in China by a foreign State. CD 1127, Conference on Disarmament, Geneva... 

Sims, The Evolution of Biological Disarmament, p.104 the mandate of the AHG is contained in Special Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (Geneva, 19-30 September 1994), Final Report, document BWC/SPCONF/1, lOf. 

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. 

A few half-hearted gestures of consternation were made in June, 1934, the Standing Committee of the Disarmament Conference at Geneva was adjourned indefinitely and in Britain the ten year rule on military expenditure was suspended. 

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