In 1993, the United States signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty sponsored by the United Nations. The U.S. Senate, however, has not yet ratified the convention, despite Senate hearings having been held on the treaty.
The General Accounting Office has recently provided a succinct discussion of the complex history of international efforts to restrict or outlaw the use of chemical weapons. We reprint it here:1
The 1925 Geneva Protocol established the international norm against the use of chemical weapons in combat, but did not prohibit the production or deployment of chemical agents and munitions. In 1989 and 1990, the United States and Russia entered into two bilateral agreements that required sharing of data on their respective chemical stockpiles, provided for visits to confirm the accuracy of the data, and would eliminate chemical weapons production and most of their chemical weapons.
In 1993, the United States, Russia, and more than 150 nations signed the U.N.-sponsored Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and the Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, commonly referred to as the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In October 1996, the 65th nation ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, making the convention effective on April 29, 1997. The convention becomes effective 180 days after the 65th nation ratifies it.
However, as of December 1996, the United States and Russia have not ratified the convention. The group of ratifiers includes major industrial states such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain; and a wide geographical range of nations such as Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Czech Republic, Georgia, India, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Oman, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uruguay. Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and other countries, mainly small island nations, have not yet signed the convention.
If the U.S. Senate approves the convention, it could affect implementation of the disposal programs. Through ratification, the United States will agree to dispose of its (1) unitary chemical weapons stockpile, binary chemical weapons, recovered chemical weapons, and former chemical weapon production facilities by April 29, 2007, and (2) miscellaneous chemical warfare materiel by April 29, 2002. If a country is unable to maintain the convention’s disposal schedule, the convention’s Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons may grant a onetime extension of up to five years.
Under terms of the convention, chemical warfare materiel buried before 1977 is exempt from disposal as long as it remains buried. Should the United States choose to excavate the sites and remove the chemical materiel, the provisions of the convention would apply.
On November 30, 1993, the president submitted the convention to the U.S. Senate for its approval. The Senate held hearings in 1994 and 1996, but has not approved the convention. However, the United States is still committed by public law to destroying its chemical stockpile and related warfare material.
Once Russia ratifies the convention, it will be committed to destroying its chemical warfare stockpile by April 29, 2007, with a five-year extension if needed. However, Russia does not have an operational capability to destroy large quantities of chemical weapons and would need to construct several chemical weapons disposal facilities to meet the convention’s requirement.
1. This appears in GAO Report No. NSIAD – 97-18, “Chemical Weapons and Materiel: Key Factors Affecting Disposal Costs and Schedules” (February 10, 1997).
Volume 7, Number 9 March 1997
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