Chemical weapons are specialised weapons that deliver chemicals that inflict death or injury on humans through chemical actions. They are also called poor man’s bomb because they are relatively cheap and easy to produce. Example of chemical weapons are mustard gas, phosgene, chlorine and nerve agents sarin and VX.
Sarin: The UN had confirmed the use of Sarin in the death of hundreds in a rebel-held Damascus.
The horrors of chemical weapons during World War I prompted countries to sign the Geneva Protocol in 1925 to stop the use of “ asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices” and bacteriological method of warfare. The convention was however silent on the production, storage and transfer of these chemicals. Chemical weapons convention plugged this loopholes which came into force in 1993. Currently there are 193 members of this convention. Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan are not the members of it. The CWC’s main objective is to destroy the stockpile of chemical weapons and as of December 2016, an estimated 93% of the world’s declared stockpiles had been destroyed. The CWC is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons.