Canada
Practice Relating to Rule 72. Poison and Poisoned Weapons
Canada’s LOAC Manual (1999) states:
Poison or poisoned weapons are illegal because of their potential to be indiscriminate. For example, the poisoning or contamination of any source of drinking water is prohibited. Posting a notice that the water has been contaminated or poisoned does not make this practice legal.
The manual also prohibits the use of “bullets that have been dipped in poison”.
The manual further states that “using poison or poisoned weapons” constitutes a war crime.
Canada’s Code of Conduct (2001) provides that the use of “poison or poison weapons” is forbidden.
Canada’s LOAC Manual (2001) states in its chapter entitled “Restrictions on the use of weapons”:
Poison or poisoned weapons are illegal because of their potential to be indiscriminate. For example, the poisoning or contamination of any source of drinking water is prohibited. Posting a notice that the water has been contaminated or poisoned does not make this practice legal, as both civilians and combatants might drink from that water source and be equally affected.
In the same chapter, the manual also prohibits the use of “bullets that have been dipped in poison”.
In its chapter on “War crimes, individual criminal liability and command responsibility”, the manual states that “using poison or poisoned weapons” constitutes a war crime.
Canada’s Code of Conduct (2005) provides that the use of “poison or poison weapons” is forbidden.
Canada’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act (2000) provides that the war crimes defined in Article 8(2) of the 1998 ICC Statute are “crimes according to customary international law” and, as such, indictable offences under the Act.
In 2013, in the
Sapkota case, Canada’s Federal Court dismissed a request for review of a decision denying refugee protection to the applicant on grounds of complicity in crimes against humanity in Nepal between 1991 and 2009. While reviewing the submissions of the respondent, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Court stated: “The Respondent notes that the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court … is endorsed in Canada as a source of customary law.”