Norma relacionada
Canada
Practice Relating to Rule 73. Biological Weapons
Canada’s LOAC Manual (1999) states:
Nations are prohibited from manufacturing, storing and using biological weapons. Both bacteriological and biological weapons are prohibited because they cause unnecessary suffering and may affect the civilian population in an indiscriminate fashion.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, p. 5-3, § 25.
The manual further states that “using bacteriological methods of warfare” constitutes a war crime.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 1999, pp. 16-3 and 16-4, § 21(i).
Canada’s LOAC Manual (2001) provides in its chapter entitled “Restrictions on the use of weapons”:
Bacteriological/biological methods of warfare are prohibited. Nations are prohibited from manufacturing, storing and using biological weapons. Both bacteriological and biological weapons are prohibited because they cause unnecessary suffering and may affect the civilian population in an indiscriminate fashion.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 516.
In its chapter on “War crimes, individual criminal liability and command responsibility”, the manual states that “using bacteriological methods of warfare” constitutes a war crime.
Canada, The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Levels, Office of the Judge Advocate General, 13 August 2001, § 1609.3.i.
At the CDDH, Canada voted against the Philippine amendment because “the particular weapons are forbidden by international law and their use, other than by way of reprisal, already constitutes a war crime”.
Canada, Statement at the CDDH, Official Records, Vol. VI, CDDH/SR.44, 30 May 1977, p. 298.
In the preliminary stages of the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1980, Canada stated:
As a matter of national policy and in keeping with the Geneva [Gas] Protocol of 1925, Canada does not “develop, produce, stockpile, or otherwise acquire or retain” microbiological agents, toxins, weapons or other means of delivery for purposes of use in armed conflict.
Canada, Response to the request by the Preparatory Committee for the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva, 3–21 March 1980, excerpted in UN Doc. BWC/CONF.I/4, 20 February 1980, § 33, Article I.
In 1994, during a debate in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Canada stated: “Biological weapons have no place in this world.”
Canada, Statement before the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, UN Doc. A/C.1/49/PV.4, 18 October 1994, p. 10.
At the Fourth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1996, Canada stressed that it “believes that the time has … come to strengthen” the Biological Weapons Convention and that “the purpose of the Convention is to prohibit an entire class of abhorred weapons” (i.e. biological weapons).
Canada, Statement of 26 November 1996 at the Fourth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva, 25 November–6 December 1996.
At the Fifth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 2001, Canada, when talking about weapons of mass destruction, especially biological weapons, stated: “We need to make sure that they are never used.” It added that biological weapons “cannot even be weapons of last resort, for their very preparation is banned”.
Canada, Statement of 19 November 2001 at the Fifth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva, 19 November–7 December 2001.
