Norma relacionada
Ecuador
Practice Relating to Rule 74. Chemical Weapons
Ecuador’s Naval Manual (1989) states, under the heading “Chemical weapons”: “International law, both customary and treaty-based, prohibits taking the initiative to use lethal chemical weapons during armed conflicts.”
Ecuador, Aspectos Importantes del Derecho Internacional Marítimo que Deben Tener Presente los Comandantes de los Buques, Academia de Guerra Naval, 1989, § 10.3.
It also provides: “The following acts constitute war crimes: … use of prohibited weapons or ammunition.” Ecuador, Aspectos Importantes del Derecho Internacional Marítimo que Deben Tener Presente los Comandantes de los Buques, Academia de Guerra Naval, 1989, § 6.2.5(10).
Ecuador’s National Civil Police Penal Code (1960) states that members of the National Civil Police “who use or order to be used … asphyxiating or poisonous gases” commit a punishable offence.
Ecuador, National Civil Police Penal Code, 1960, Article 117.4.
In 1988, in a statement before the Fifteenth Special Session of the UN General Assembly, Ecuador stated: “Among disarmament measures, Ecuador believes that priority should be given to the following: … a complete ban on the testing or production of new weapons of mass destruction, including chemical [weapons].”
Ecuador, Statement before the Fifteenth Special Session of the UN General Assembly, UN Doc. A/S-15/PV.2, 1 June 1988, § 158.
In 1989, in reply to a note verbale of the UN Secretary-General on the subject of chemical weapons, Ecuador declared that it did not possess chemical weapons.
Ecuador, Reply to a note verbale of the UN Secretary-General, referred to in Report of the Secretary-General on respect for the right to life: elimination of chemical weapons, prepared in accordance with UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1988/27, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1989/4, 17 August 1989, § 98.
In 1991, during a debate in the UN Security Council on the situation between Iraq and Kuwait, Ecuador stated:
It is … timely to insist on observance of the international agreements which prohibit the use of asphyxiating and toxic gases and bacterial warfare and which seek the universal elimination of chemical and biological weapons.
Ecuador, Statement before the UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/PV.2981, 3 April 1991, p. 107.
At the First Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, Ecuador stated that it was in favour of global eradication of chemical weapons and stressed the importance of universal adherence to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
Ecuador, Statement at the First Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, The Hague, 6–23 May 1997.
