The Geneva Protocol, 100 years on

The Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflict was signed exactly 100 years ago. 

The Protocol prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare and has enjoyed mixed success.

With the world stuck in a seemingly endless doom loop of conflict, it's an anniversary with added meaning.

What was the background to the agreement? 

On April 22, 1915 German specialist troops released asphyxiating gas from cylinders embedded in the ground at the Second Battle of Ypres, causing 6-7,000 casualties. 

A British officer's horrific description of its effect on French colonial soldiers detailed "a panic-stricken rabble of Turcos and Zouaves with gray faces and protruding eyeballs, clutching their throats and choking as they ran, many of them dropping in their tracks and lying on the sodden earth with limbs convulsed and features distorted in death."

The technology and tactics of gas warfare were developed on both sides for the remaining three years of World War I.

A total of 91,000 soldiers died from poison gas and 1.3 million were injured, leading to widespread public outcry globally. 

How was international agreement reached on banning the use of lethal gas?

The Protocol was drawn up and signed at the Conference for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition. The conference was held in Geneva under the patronage of the United Nations' precursor The League of Nations.

Negotiations began on May 4, 1925 and lasted for more than six weeks. 

The conference was part of a series of measures designed to avoid repetition of the atrocities committed by the perceived aggressors in World War I, notably Germany.

It adopted a Convention for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms, Munitions and Implements of War. 

What does the Geneva Protocol consist of?

The Protocol prohibits the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of bacteriological methods of warfare. However, it did not ban the development or production of chemical weapons.

Submitted by Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš, the protocol included proposed sanctions against an aggressor nation and provided a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes. 

Under the plan, countries would agree to submit all disputes to the Permanent Court of International Justice and any state refusing arbitration was to be deemed the aggressor. However, the setting up of such a body failed after it was rejected by the British, meaning no enforceable verification mechanisms has ever been established.

Who signed it?

Thirty-eight states initially signed the Protocol in 1925. That number has increased over the years to 146, with El Salvador the most recent signatory in 2008. 

Some states declared that the provisions of the Protocol would cease to be binding on them if their enemies failed to respect its prohibitions. 

However, many of these so-called 'reservations' have been withdrawn, since the signing of two subsequent treaties – namely the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

The U.S. didn't sign the Geneva Protocol until 1972. It's one of 23 countries who still hold partial reservations. 

How successful has it been?

Its record is mixed. Although the use of chemical weapons in international conflicts has been limited, the Protocol does not cover internal or civil conflicts. 

Various countries' reservations have rendered the Protocol a no-first-use agreement which has mostly kept chemical weapons off the battlefield for the past century.

However, there have been some notable examples of their use. 

• Italy used mustard gas against Libya in 1928 and Ethiopia in 1935. 

• Japan used mustard gas against Chinese troops in 1939. 

• Egyptian forces used nerve gas against Yemeni tribesmen in 1962, during the North Yemen Civil War.

• Chemical weapons were employed by Iraq under the leadership of the Halabja massacre in Iraqi Kurdistan in March 1988 when thousands of Kurds were killed by a large-scale Iraqi chemical attack.

• UN inspectors confirmed the use of sarin gas during the recent Syrian civil war. 

• Low-level instances of chemical weapons use have been reported in various conflicts.