Related Rule
Germany
Practice Relating to Rule 74. Chemical Weapons
Germany’s Soldiers’ Manual (1991) provides: “The use of chemical weapons (for example poisonous gas) … is prohibited.”
Germany, Taschenkarte, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Grundsätze, Bearbeitet nach ZDv 15/2, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Handbuch, Zentrum Innere Führung, June 1991, p. 5.
Germany’s Military Manual (1992) proscribes “the use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and all analogous liquids, materials or similar devices in war” and refers to the 1925 Geneva Gas Protocol and to Article 23(a) of the 1907 Hague Regulations. It adds:
434. The prohibition also applies to the toxic contamination of water supply installations and foodstuffs and the use of irritant agents for military purposes. This prohibition does not refer to unintentional and insignificant poisonous secondary effects of otherwise permissible munitions.
435. The scope of this prohibition is restricted by the fact that, when signing the Geneva Gas Protocol, numerous states declared that this Protocol should cease to be binding in regard to any enemy state whose armed forces fail to respect the prohibition embodied in the Protocol.
Germany, Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts – Manual, DSK VV207320067, edited by The Federal Ministry of Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany, VR II 3, August 1992, English translation of ZDv 15/2, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Handbuch, August 1992, §§ 434 and 435.
The manual refers to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and stresses that it was not in force at the time (1992). However, it declares:
On signing the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and their Destruction on 10 April 1972, the Federal Republic of Germany further declared that, in accordance with its attitude, it would neither develop nor acquire or stockpile under its own control chemical weapons whose manufacture it has already abstained from. This commitment was confirmed under Article 3 of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany of 12 September 1990.
Germany, Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflicts – Manual, DSK VV207320067, edited by The Federal Ministry of Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany, VR II 3, August 1992, English translation of ZDv 15/2, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Handbuch, August 1992, §§ 436–437.
Germany’s IHL Manual (1996) states:
International humanitarian law prohibits the use of a number of means of warfare, which are of a nature to violate the principle of humanity and to cause unnecessary suffering, e.g. … chemical means of warfare, e.g. poisonous gases.
Germany, ZDv 15/1, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Grundsätze, DSK VV230120023, Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, June 1996, § 305.
Germany’s Soldiers’ Manual (2006) states:
German service men or service women are prohibited from using in particular the following means of combat in armed conflicts:
…
- chemical weapons (e.g. poisonous gas).
Germany, Druckschrift Einsatz Nr. 03, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Grundsätze, Erarbeitet nach ZDv 15/2, Humanitäres Völkerrecht in bewaffneten Konflikten – Handbuch, DSK SF009320187, Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, R II 3, August 2006, p. 5.
Germany’s Law Introducing the International Crimes Code (2002) punishes anyone who, in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict, “employs … chemical weapons”.
Germany, Law Introducing the International Crimes Code, 2002, Article 1, § 12(1)(2).
In 1988, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Parliament stated that it was afraid that poison gas could be used by Iraqi forces against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq. The Committee rejected in particular the line of argument that the 1925 Geneva Gas Protocol applied only to international armed conflicts. It called upon the German Government to investigate the alleged involvement of German companies in the production of chemical weapons for Iraq and stated: “In the opinion of the German Parliament, on the way to a universal outlawing of chemical weapons, any use of poison gas must meet the determined resistance of the international community.”
Germany, Lower House of Parliament, Recommendation for a decision by the Foreign Affairs Committee concerning the use of poisoned gas by the government of Iraq against Kurds living in Iraq, BT-Drucksache 11/2962, 23 September 1988, pp. 1–2.
In its Annual Disarmament Report 2003, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament)in 2004, Germany’s Federal Government reported:
The Federal Republic of Germany does not possess chemical weapons according to the definition of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The chemical weapons produced before 1946 are defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention as “old chemical weapons”, which also must be destroyed. This therefore also applies to the chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945. This concerns munitions found.
… The continuous destruction of the old chemical weapons is undertaken at the incineration plant at Munster.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2003, 14 May 2004, p. 34.
In its Annual Disarmament Report 2004, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) in 2005, Germany’s Federal Government stated:
The Federal Republic of Germany does not possess chemical weapons according to the definition of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The chemical weapons produced before 1946 are defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention as “old chemical weapons”, which also must be destroyed. This therefore also applies to the chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945. This concerns munitions found.
… The continuous destruction of the old chemical weapons is undertaken at the incineration plant at Munster.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2004, 17 June 2005, pp. 33–34.
In its Annual Disarmament Report 2005, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) in 2006, Germany’s Federal Government stated:
Germany does not possess chemical weapons according to the definition of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Chemical weapons produced before 1946 are defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention as “old chemical weapons”, which also must be destroyed. This therefore also applies to the chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945. This concerns munitions found.
… The continuous destruction of the old chemical weapons is undertaken at the incineration plant … at Munster.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2005, 12 May 2006, p. 26.
In 2006, in a white paper on German security policy and the future of the Bundeswehr, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defence stated:
Among the treaties on the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction, the CWC [Chemical Weapons Convention] is of exemplary importance. This is the first and so far the only multilateral disarmament treaty to obligate the parties to the treaty to destroy an entire category of weapons of mass destruction within set time limits and under international monitoring. The Federal Government therefore advocates the full and timely implementation of the destruction regulations in particular, as well as the universal application of this Convention.
Germany, Federal Ministry of Defence, White Paper 2006 on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr, 25 October 2006, p. 46.
In its Annual Disarmament Report 2006, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) in 2007, Germany’s Federal Government stated:
Germany does not possess chemical weapons according to the definition of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Chemical weapons produced before 1946 are defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention as “old chemical weapons”, which also must be destroyed. This therefore also applies to the chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945. This concerns munitions found.
… The continuous destruction of the old chemical weapons is undertaken at the incineration plant … at Munster.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2006, 27 April 2007, p. 25.
In its Annual Disarmament Report 2008, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament), Germany’s Federal Government stated:
Germany does not possess chemical weapons as defined in the CWC [the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention]. Chemical weapons produced before 1946 are defined by the CWC as “old chemical weapons”, which must also be destroyed. This therefore applies to the chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945. The last remaining grenades of the stockpile of old chemical weapons were destroyed in 2007 in the presence of the director general of the OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. … Single chemical weapons ammunitions which have since been found (e.g. during construction work) are retrieved and transported to a destruction facility in a timely way.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2008, 21 January 2009, p. 16.
In 2010, in its Annual Disarmament Report 2009, submitted to the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament), Germany’s Federal Government stated:
Germany does not possess chemical weapons as defined by the CWC [1993 Chemical Weapons Convention]. The chemical weapons produced by the German Reich before 1945 are defined by the CWC as old chemical weapons and must also be destroyed. The last remaining grenades of the stockpile of old chemical weapons were destroyed in 2007 in the presence of the Director General of the OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. Single chemical weapons ammunitions which have since been found, e.g. during construction work, were retrieved and transported to a destruction facility in a timely way.
Germany, Federal Government, Annual Disarmament Report 2009, 13 January 2010, p. 17.
