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This site was last updated:
June 25, 2004 |
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A
Brief Legal Backgrounder
Over the past 100 years, governments
worldwide have signed many agreements that restrict war as a means
for conflict resolution. Some of these are:
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The
Geneva Gas Protocol, 1925 |
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The
United Nations Charter, 1945 |
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The
Nuremberg Principles, 1945 |
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The
Genocide Convention, 1948 |
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The
Geneva Conventions, 1949 and subsequent protocols |
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The
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968
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The
Convention on Environmental Modification, 1977 |
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The
Convention on Certain Inhumane Weapons |
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The
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty |
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The
Chemical Weapons Convention |
These agreements prohibit:
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Weapons
or tactics that cause unnecessary or aggravated devastation
or suffering. |
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Weapons
or tactics that cause indiscriminate harm as between combatants
or noncombatants, and military and civilian personnel.
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Weapons
or tactics in warfare that violate the neutral jurisdiction
of non-participating states. |
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Asphyxiating,
poisonous or other gas, and all analogous liquids, materials
and devices, including bacteriological methods of warfare.
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Weapons
or tactics that cause widespread long-term and severe damage
to the natural environment. |
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Reprisals
that are disproportionate to the antecedent provocation, or
disrespectful of persons, institutions, or resources protected
by the laws of war. |
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