Ma.Loisa S.

Dasmarinas AB - Political Science 4th Year

Think Paper on the International Humanitarian Law

With the recent news of the chemical attack spearheaded by Syrian President
Bashadr Al-Assad on the city of Damascus which has killed over 40 people which were
all civilians, has opened the topic on the use of chemical weapons in armed conflicts in
the international and non-international arena. The UN has before introduced the 1993
Chemical Weapons Convention which has prohibited the use of chemical or biological
weapons in arm conflicts as it also co-exist with the 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention to strengthen the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the prohibition of the use in war
of asphyxiation, poisonous or other gases, and of bacteriological methods of warfare.
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention is all about the prohibition of the development,
production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction that
belongs to the category of instruments of international law that prohibits weapons
deemed particularly obscene. The 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons
and the protocol on New Weapons talk about the use of certain weapons in warfare and
how their are rules and protocols to be followed when using certain weapons in war.
States who are signatories of the United Nation are oblige to to assess new weapons,
means and methods of warfare it studies, develops, acquire or adopt.

All three convention were drafted out in response to the horrors of what new
weapons and the use of chemical and biological weapons has done in both World War I
and World War II, the need to preserve life and to preserve the safety of the civilians who
are innocently involved in the war. So overall the three Conventions are to be followed by
all states but some are not oblige as they are not signatories but they still have to respect
and obey the rules and protocols stated in these conventions.

Now In the recent news, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was reported to have
launched a chemical attack on the city of Douma near Damascus as a way to retaliate
against the rebel group found in the city. In my opinion the use of chemical weapons as a
means to retaliate against the enemy is far to excessive along with the negligence to
follow the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and the New Weapons protocol. And
with the attack of the combined force of the United States, France and United Kingdom
on the suppose chemical facilities without the prior knowledge of the United Nations goes
to show that not only are they trying to exert their place as the “police” of the international
community but they are also trying to exert their dominance over Russia and China who
called the attack “unnecessary” and has backed up the Syrian government causing a
clash between the President of Russia and the President of the United States. Luckily
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons or OPCW has launched an
immediate investigation on the Syrian chemical attack, overall both sides, the United
States, France and United Kingdom along with Russia has fault as to how they had
handled the incident, if only they had allowed the United Nations to investigate the
attack first before meddling in, then there would be no hostilities between nations as well
as the fear of a looming World War III between the United States and Russia.