• Chemical weapons are specialised munitions that deliver chemicals that inflict death or injury on humans through chemical actions.
• Because they are relatively cheap and easy to produce, chemical weapons are referred to as the “poor man’s bomb”.
• Even though modern munitions, through precision of application and specialised use, can cause catastrophic damage, chemical weapons trigger unmatched horror and leave deep psychological scars.
• Among the most commonly used chemical weapons are mustard gas, phosgene, chlorine, and the nerve agents Sarin and VX.
• Sarin: Doctors and first-responders at Tuesday’s attack site said symptoms shown by victims suggested use of Sarin. This odourless, colourless agent is extremely potent — even trace amounts can kill humans — but its threat after being released in the atmosphere is short-lived. The UN had confirmed the use of Sarin in the deaths of hundreds in a rebel-held Damascus suburb in 2013.
• Mustard gas: Possibly the world’s most commonly used chemical weapon, it was widely used in World War I, and gets its name from its distinctive odour of rotten mustard. It is slow acting, and only about 5% to 10% of people exposed to it usually die.
• VX: This is the nerve agent that was reportedly used in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this February. In its original form, it is odourless, and appears as a brownish oily substance. It is very persistent — once in the atmosphere, it is slow to evaporate, and thus tends to cause prolonged exposure.

What are the international conventions against the use of chemical weapons?

• 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 methods of warfare”.
• The core elements of the Geneva Convention, which went on to have 35 signatories and 140 parties, are now generally considered part of customary international law.
• The Convention was, however, silent on the production, storage and transfer of these chemicals.
• Later treaties, most importantly the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993, plugged these holes.
• The CWC outlawed the production as well as stockpiling of chemical weapons. 192 countries have so far agreed to be bound by the CWC — 4 UN states are not party: Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan.
• The CWC’s main objective is to get signatories to destroy their stockpiles 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 (OPCW), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its efforts to curb use of chemical weapons internationally.
• India was one of the original signatories of the CWC in 1993, stating that it did not possess chemical weapons or the technology to manufacture it.
• However, in June 1997, it declared a stockpile of 1,044 tonnes of sulphur mustard, and promised to start the process of destroying it as per CWC guidelines.
• In March 2009, India declared that it had completely destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons, becoming the third country in the world (after South Korea and Albania) to do so. OPCW and UN inspectors confirmed this in May 2009.

Source: Indian Express