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Pacific Settlement of International Disputes
- The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes was a proposal to the League of Nations presented by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his French counterpart Édouard Herriot. It set up compulsory arbitration of disputes and created a method to determine the aggressor in international conflicts.
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The Geneva Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes was a proposal to the League of Nations presented by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and his French counterpart Édouard Herriot. It set up compulsory arbitration of disputes and created a method to determine the aggressor in international conflicts.
Geneva Protocol, (1924) League of Nations draft treaty to ensure collective security in Europe. Submitted by Edvard Beneš, the protocol proposed sanctions against an aggressor nation and provided a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts.
Oct 7, 2016 · Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Signed at Geneva June 17, 1925. Entered into force February 8, 1928. Ratification advised by the U.S. Senate December 16, 1974.
- Overview
- Background
- Limitations
Geneva Gas Protocol, in international law, treaty signed in 1925 by most of the world’s countries banning the use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare. It was drafted at the 1925 Geneva Conference as part of a series of measures designed to avoid repetition of the atrocities committed by the belligerents in World War I.
Building on several treaties that had ended World War I (notably the Treaty of Versailles [1919] between the Allies and Germany), the Protocol specifically prohibited the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous, or other gases and bacteriological weapons. The protocol did not ban the development, production, or stockpiling of such weaponry, however. For that reason, the protocol was later supplemented by the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972 and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993.
The widespread use of asphyxiating gas during World War I ushered in a new era of human-inflicted mass destruction and greatly alarmed the international community. The peace treaties that the victorious Allies signed with defeated Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Hungary signaled a strong recognition of the immense danger that chemical and biological weapons represented. The 1925 Geneva Conference, organized by the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations, took those treaties one step further. At the initiative of the United States, France, and Poland, the participant countries at the conference drafted what came to be known as the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.
The protocol was signed and ratified by many countries in the years before World War II. The United States, however, did not officially ratify the protocol until 1975, although it considered itself bound by the ban throughout the war and abided by the signatories’ call for the protocol to become “part of International Law, binding alike the conscience and the practice of nations.”
Since its inception in 1925, the Geneva Gas Protocol has been an important piece of international legislation, and most countries in the world have officially recognized it—including all countries that have a known capability to produce chemical and biological weapons.
The limitations of the protocol, however, became evident soon after the Geneva Conference. At the time of its signing, several major powers (including the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union) explicitly reserved the right to use the forbidden weapons for retaliatory purposes. In other words, should a state decide to use chemical or bacteriological weapons against another country, in full defiance of the stipulations of the protocol, the country under attack would legally be allowed to respond in kind. Also, the 1925 document failed to address the production, storage, testing, and transfer of the forbidden weapons, a failure that allowed countries such as the Soviet Union and the United States to amass large supplies of chemical and bacteriological agents. Despite its obvious inadequacies, the protocol remains the legal foundation for a long series of multilateral treaties dealing with the threat that weapons such as mustard gas and anthrax represent.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
What was the Geneva Protocol? The Geneva Protocol was a proposal drawn up in 1924 to strengthen collective security. It would make member states bring their disputes to the Permanent Court of International Justice for a ruling. They would have to accept it, or face economic or military sanctions.
Jun 15, 2019 · Signed on June 17, 1925, the Geneva Protocol thus restated the prohibition previously laid down by the Versailles and Washington treaties and added a ban on bacteriological warfare. Before World War II the protocol was ratified by many countries, including all the great powers except the United States and Japan.
