There is no morality in war. It is impossible to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. There is no morality in chemical and cluster bombing. There is no sufficient justification for murdering innocent children and others. Nothing will compensate for the intentional wanton destruction of innocent people's property and lives. The indiscriminate slaughter of Syrian children and others is an act of terrorism.
“The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is a multilateral treaty that bans chemical weapons and requires their destruction within a specified period of time. The treaty is of unlimited duration and is far more comprehensive than the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which outlaws the use but not the possession of chemical weapons.
“CWC negotiations started in 1980 in the UN Conference on Disarmament. The convention opened for signature on January 13, 1993, and entered into force on April 29, 1997.
“The CWC is implemented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is headquartered in The Hague with about 500 employees. The OPCW receives states-parties’ declarations detailing chemical weapons-related activities or materials and relevant industrial activities. After receiving declarations, the OPCW inspects and monitors states-parties’ facilities and activities that are relevant to the convention, to ensure compliance.
“The CWC is open to all nations and currently has 192 states-parties. Israel has signed but has yet to ratify the convention. A key non-signatory includes North Korea, which is believed to possess chemical weapons. Syria acknowledged it had chemical weapons in 2012, and used them on multiple occasions.
“On September 12, 2013, Syria sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary General which said that the Assad regime has signed a legislative decree providing the accession of Syria to the Chemical Weapons Convention. In the letter, Assad said Syria would observe its CWC obligations immediately, as opposed to 30 days from the date of accession, as stipulated in the treaty.
“Syria agreed to ship out its chemical weapons and destroy its production facilities. With the help of an international coalition, Syria's declared chemical weapons were completely removed from the country by June 2014. The Assad regime continues to use chlorine gas in violation of the CWC…”
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Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare:
ReplyDeleteSigned at Geneva June 17, 1925
Entered into force February 8, 1928
Ratification advised by the U.S. Senate December 16, 1974
Ratified by U.S. President January 22, 1975
U.S. ratification deposited with the
Government of France April 10, 1975
Proclaimed by U.S. President April 29, 1975
The Undersigned Plenipotentiaries, in the name of their respective Governments:
Whereas the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices, has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world; and
Whereas the prohibition of such use has been declared in Treaties to which the majority of Powers of the World are Parties; and
To the end that this prohibition shall be universally accepted as a part of International Law, binding alike the conscience and the practice of nations;
Declare:
That the High Contracting Parties, so far as they are not already Parties to Treaties prohibiting such use, accept this prohibition, agree to extend this prohibition to the use of bacteriological methods of warfare and agree to be bound as between themselves according to the terms of this declaration.
The High Contracting Parties will exert every effort to induce other States to accede to the present Protocol. Such accession will be notified to the Government of the French Republic, and by the latter to all signatory and acceding Powers, and will take effect on the date of the notification by the Government of the French Republic.
The present Protocol, of which the French and English texts are both authentic, shall be ratified as soon as possible. It shall bear today's date.
The ratifications of the present Protocol shall be addressed to the Government of the French Republic, which will at once notify the deposit of such ratification to each of the signatory and acceding Powers.
The instruments of ratification of and accession to the present Protocol will remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic.
The present Protocol will come into force for each signatory Power as from the date of deposit of its ratification, and, from that moment, each Power will be bound as regards other powers which have already deposited their ratifications.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Protocol.
DONE at Geneva in a single copy, this seventeenth day of June, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-Five.
https://www.state.gov/t/isn/4784.htm
"War IS terrorism" Howard Zinn
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