Weapons riot control agents

In the event of (a) the use of chemical weapons or riot control agents as a method of warfare, and/or (b) the threat of the use of chemical weapons, and/or (c) the threat of actions or activities prohibited for States Parties by Article I ... 

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. 

For the purpose of implementing the CWC, toxic chemicals and precursors, which have been identified for the application of verification measures, are listed in Schedules contained in the Annex on Chemicals (for the Schedules, see Chapter 2). Schedule 1 includes chemicals developed, produced, stockpiled, or used as a chemical weapon as defined above, and chemicals structurally close to them. Schedule 2 lists three toxic chemicals not included in Schedule 1 and the degradation products and precursors of these toxic chemicals as well as of those of Schedule 1. Schedule 3 lists four toxic chemicals and precursors not listed in the other Schedules. The Schedules contain mainly organic chemicals with different chemical and physical properties, being neutral chemicals, acids, bases, volatiles, and nonvolatiles, where phosphorus, fluorine, sulfur, chlorine, nitrogen, and oxygen occur frequently. Riot control agents are not included in the Schedules. 

This provision incorporates almost verbatim the prohibitions contained in Article I, paragraph 1, of the CWC, as well as the prohibition on the use of riot control agents that is found in Article I, paragraph 5, of the CWC. The Australian legislation further provides that the term chemical weapons used in the legislation has the same meaning as in the Convention so that the scope of the Australian provision is basically coterminous with the fundamental prohibitions contained in Article I of the CWC.i ... 

Rosenberg, B.H. (2003). Riot control agents and the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Open Forum on Challenges to the Chemical Weapons Ban, May 1. 

Sidell, F.R. (1997). Riot control agents. In Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Weapons (Textbook of Military Medicine series. Warfare, Weaponry, and the Casualty, Part I, 1st edition (R. Zajtchuk, ed.), pp. 307-24. Borden Institute, Washington, DC. 

See also CS Gas Non-Lethal Weapons, Chemical Riot Control Agents. 

Blumenfeld, R. and Meselson, M., The military value and political implications of the use of riot control agents in chemical warfare, in The Control of Chemical and Biological Weapons, Carnegie Endowment, New York, NY, pp. 64-93, 1971. 

However, unlike the BTWC which prohibits all uses of biological or toxin weapons for hostile purposes or in armed conflict, the CWC has a different treatment in regard to riot control agents where each State Party undertakes not to use riot control agents as a method of warfare. This is further amplified by the definition in Article II of the CWC of the words purposes not prohibited under this Convention as follows ... 

Convulsives and calmatives may rely on their toxic properties to have a physiological effect on humans. If that is the case, and these two NLWs (Non-Lethal Weapons) are not considered RCAs (Riot Control Agents), in order to avoid being classified as a prohibited chemical weapon, they would have to be used for the article I(9)(d) purpose not prohibited" the law enforcement purpose. As discussed... the limits of this purpose not prohibited are not clear and will be determined by the practice of states (emphasis added). 

OTHER COMMENTS used primarily as a tear-gas and riot control agent can be disseminated in burning grenades and weapon-fired projectiles, as an aerosol form the finely divided solid chemical, or from a solution of the chemical dissolved in acetone or methylene chlo-nde. 

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