Chapter

Arms control and international humanitarian law

Carlo Trezza

Global violence : consequences and responses

Milano : Franco Angeli : International Institute of Humanitarian Law, 2011

p. 129-132

English

Until the 20th century, the attention was mainly concentrated on conventional weapons since they were the only weapons available. But even today humanitarian disarmament is principally focused on conventional weapons since they are the ones being used in current international and domestic conflicts and cause practically all the victims and sufferings. But the casualties and sufferings caused by chemical weapons during the WWI were the determining factor that led to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibiting the use of chemical/biological weapons in armed conflict, thus opening the chapter of humanitarian disarmament with regard to weapons of mass destruction.

• Global violence : consequences and responses : 33rd round table on current issues of international humanitarian law (Sanremo, 9-11 September 2010) / ed. by Marco Odello, Gian Luca Beruto