Related Rule
Italy
Practice Relating to Rule 73. Biological Weapons
Italy’s IHL Manual (1991) provides: “The use of bacteriological means … is forbidden in conformity with the international provisions in force.”
Italy, Manuale di diritto umanitario, Introduzione e Volume I, Usi e convenzioni di Guerra, SMD-G-014, Stato Maggiore della Difesa, I Reparto, Ufficio Addestramento e Regolamenti, Rome, 1991, Vol. I, § 19.
Italy’s Law of War Decree (1938), as amended in 1992, states: “The use of bacteriological means … is forbidden in conformity with the international provisions in force.”
Italy, Law of War Decree, 1938, as amended in 1992, Article 51.
Italy’s Law on the Export, Import and Transit of Armaments (1990) provides: “The manufacture, import, export and transit of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons are prohibited, as is research designed for their production or the provision of the relevant technology.”
Italy, Law on the Export, Import and Transit of Armaments, 1990, Chapter 1, Section 1, § 7.
At the CDDH, Italy abstained in the vote on the Philippine amendment stating: “It would not be useful because it dealt with means and methods of warfare which were already prohibited by the existing law.”
Italy, Statement at the CDDH, Official Records, Vol. VI, CDDH/SR.44, 30 May 1977, p. 285, § 30.
