القاعدة ذات الصلة
New Zealand
Practice Relating to Rule 73. Biological Weapons
New Zealand’s Military Manual (1992) states: “The [1925 Geneva Gas Protocol] prohibits the use … of bacteriological methods of warfare.”
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, §§ 512, 619 and 711.
The manual also includes “using bacteriological methods of warfare” in a list of “war crimes recognised by the customary law of armed conflict”.
New Zealand, Interim Law of Armed Conflict Manual, DM 112, New Zealand Defence Force, Headquarters, Directorate of Legal Services, Wellington, November 1992, § 1704(5).
New Zealand’s Disarmament Act (1987) provides: “No person shall manufacture, station, acquire, or possess, or have control over any biological weapon in the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone.”
New Zealand, Disarmament Act, 1987, Section 8.
At the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1980, the representative of New Zealand stated: “Since New Zealand possessed none of the weapons or delivery systems referred to in article I of the [1972 Biological Weapons Convention], his Government had not considered it necessary to enact any special legislation prohibiting the activities in question”.
New Zealand, Statement of 7 March 1980 at the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva, 3–21 March 1980, UN Doc. BWC/CONF.I/SR.6, 7 March 1980, § 13.
At the Fourth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1996, New Zealand stressed that it was “strongly committed to the [Biological Weapons Convention]”. Moreover, it stated that it was very conscious that
biological weapons pose as great a threat to humanity as nuclear weapons. But they are much easier to manufacture and conceal. For that reason States Parties to the Convention have a major responsibility to strengthen the Convention and establish a mechanism to ensure that the Parties to the Convention comply with its prohibition.
New Zealand, Statement of 25 November 1996 at the Fourth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva, 25 November–6 December 1996.
