Linking the Prohibition of Use to Disarmament

As early as the Versailles Peace Treaty, the prohibition of chemical warfare was linked to arms control and disarmament. However, the Treaty s Article 171 only imposed limitations upon Germany. The disarmament and arms control efforts of the League of Nations only generated the 1925 Protocol, but no distinct arms control or disarmament obligations. After World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria renounced the possession of chemical weapons on the basis of the 1954 Paris Protocol HI to the Brassels Treaty and the 1955 Austrian State Treaty.  

As already explained, the 1993 CWC prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer and use of chemical weapons (Article I, 

The Convention requires States Parties possessing chemical weapons to destroy their stocks within a period of ten years, with the possibility to apply for extensions, and ensnres that all possessor States destroy their stockpiles at approximately the same rate, subject to verification. Due to technical, environmental and financial problems, the time limits originally envisaged for the destruction of chemical weapons nnder the CWC have not been fully met, but overall destruction has been rather successful —and the OPCW has proved enormous flexibility in the context of Syria s accession to the Convention.  

In the absence of the Convention s full universality and in view of non-state actors seeking to acquire chemical weapons capabilities. States have long adopted counter-proliferation measures. Early steps had already been taken in the 1980s, both at the national level and by way of international co-ordination, such as the export controls organized through the so-called Australia group. The effectiveness of such controls is doubtful, notwithstanding other multilateral efforts such as UN Security Council Resolution 1540 of 28 April 2004 on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  

Article VIII CWC for an analysis of the organization, see Tabassi 2001. Peakes 2002. 

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