Islamic Republic of Iran
Practice Relating to Rule 45. Causing Serious Damage to the Natural Environment
In 1991, during a debate in the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on the exploitation of the environment as a weapon in times of armed conflict, the Islamic Republic of Iran cited
various provisions of Additional Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Conventions which related to the protection of the environment and led to the conclusion that that instrument clearly prohibited attacks on the environment and the use of the environment as a tool of warfare.
In its written statement submitted to the ICJ in the
Nuclear Weapons case in 1995, the Islamic Republic of Iran stated, with respect to Article 35 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I: “No doubt, this prohibition applies to nuclear weapons for their enormous destructive and long term effect on the environment.”
According to the Report on the Practice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, following the bombardment of Iranian oil wells in the Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait announced that “Iraq had violated Articles 35 and 37 [of the 1977 Additional Protocol I]”.