Today in Technology History

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January 13

Chemical weapons and Iraq, two subjects constantly in the news these days, also made major headlines exactly one decade ago.

Chemical weapons were first extensively used in warfare during WWI; by the end of that war, nearly 100,000 people had been killed by chemical weapons, and another million were wounded or blinded. A 1925 treaty, the Geneva Protocol, banned the military use of chemical weapons -- but that one-page treaty didn't prevent countries from stockpiling them, and there was no way to verify that countries complied with the treaty after signing it.

In 1968, negotiations began for a more effective ban. The discussions dragged along for decades, although they gained new momentum after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used poison gas in the 1980s.

The final result of the negotiations was the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction" -- commonly known as the "Chemical Weapons Convention" (or just CWC). This treaty, almost 200 pages long, doesn't just ban the use of chemical weapons -- it calls for their complete elimination.

The CWC outright bans certain chemicals, while other dangerous chemicals are subject to strict controls. All nations that sign the treaty are required to declare and destroy whatever chemical weapons they have, and to destroy all their facilities for producing chemical weapons. Most importantly, the CWC can be verified: international inspectors make sure countries comply with the treaty, and nations can even challenge one another to let inspectors in.

Diplomats started signing the CWC in Paris exactly ten years ago, on January 13, 1993. The list of countries that never signed on to the treaty reads like a rogue's gallery: Libya, North Korea, Syria, Iraq.

Even though Iraq refused to sign the treaty, that country's chemical weapons were already being sought and destroyed, as required by UN resolutions after the Persian Gulf War. Saddam Hussein, as you no doubt know, refused to abide by the conditions imposed on him after he lost that war. The world constantly sent him reminders, including air raids -- the first of which came from British, American and French planes on January 13, 1993, even as the CWC was being signed in Paris.

The CWC went into effect in 1997, and as of today about 150 countries have signed and ratified it. A special conference to review the status of the treaty is scheduled to take place in a few months.

Related links:

• Click here to read the CWC text and see a list of the signatories.

• In the years since the CWC was signed, it has become increasingly clear that the modern threat of chemical weapons doesn't come from countries that would use them in warfare, but instead comes from groups that would use them for terrorism. For instance, click here to read about the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which used chemical weapons in the Japanese subway in 1995.

• Click here to visit the homepage of the organization that enforces the CWC.

• Both the U.S. and Russia, which admitted to having chemical weapons, signed the CWC right away. (Those two countries had already been destroying their chemical weapons, as per a 1990 agreement.) Click here to read about the U.S.'s efforts to comply with the CWC.

• Click here to read about a 1972 treaty prohibiting biological weapons.

 

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