Editing Geneva Protocol (section)

{{short description|Treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts}}
{{other uses}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Geneva Protocols|Geneva Conventions}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox Treaty
|name                = Geneva Protocol
|long_name           = Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare
|image               =
|image_width         =
|caption             =Countries part of the Geneva Protocol
|type                =
|date_drafted        = 17 June 1925<ref name=dep/>
|date_signed         = 17 June 1925<ref name=dep/>
|location_signed     = [[Geneva]]<ref name=dep/>
|date_sealed         =
|date_effective      = 8 February 1928<ref name=dep/>
|condition_effective = Ratification by 65 states<ref>Chemical Weapons Convention, [http://www.opcw.org/chemical-weapons-convention/articles/article-xxi-entry-into-force Article 21].</ref>
|date_expiration     =
|signatories         = 38<ref name=dep/>
|parties             = 146<ref name=unoda/>
|depositor           = Government of France<ref name=dep>{{cite web|url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/traites/affichetraite.do?accord=TRA19250001|title=Protocole concernant la prohibition d'emploi à la guerre de gaz asphyxiants, toxiques ou similaires et de moyens bactériologiques, fait à Genève le 17 juin 1925|access-date=23 July 2013|publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (France)|Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of France]]|language=fr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202071155/http://www.doc.diplomatie.gouv.fr/BASIS/pacte/webext/multidep/DDW?W%3D+ORDER+BY+DATOP%2FAscend%26M%3D18%26K%3D19250001%26R%3DY%26U%3D1|archive-date=2 December 2008|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>
|language            =
|languages           = 
|wikisource          =Geneva Protocol to Hague Convention
}}

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 weapons|chemical]] and [[biological weapons]] in international [[armed conflicts]]. It was signed at [[Geneva]] on 17 June 1925 and entered into force on 8 February 1928. It was registered in ''[[League of Nations]] [[Treaty Series]]'' on 7 September 1929.<ref>''League of Nations Treaty Series'', [https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/LON/Volume%2094/v94.pdf vol. 94, pp. 66–74].</ref> The Geneva Protocol is a protocol to the Convention for the Supervision of the International Trade in Arms and Ammunition and in Implements of War signed on the same date, and followed the [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907]].

It prohibits the use of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices" and "bacteriological methods of warfare". This is now understood to be a general prohibition on chemical weapons and biological weapons between state parties, but has nothing to say about production, storage or transfer. Later treaties did cover these aspects – the 1972 [[Biological Weapons Convention]] (BWC) and the 1993 [[Chemical Weapons Convention]] (CWC).

A number of countries submitted reservations when becoming parties to the Geneva Protocol, declaring that they only regarded the non-use obligations as applying to other parties and that these obligations would cease to apply if the prohibited weapons were used against them.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Disarmament Treaties Database: 1925 Geneva Protocol|url=http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/1925|access-date=2021-02-09|website=[[United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs]]}}</ref><ref name=":0">Beard, J. (2007). "The Shortcomings of Indeterminacy in Arms Control Regimes: The Case of the Biological Weapons Convention". American Journal of International Law. 101(2): 271–321. doi:[https://doi.org/10.1017/S0002930000030098%5B 10.1017/S0002930000030098]. p., 277</ref>