Topic summary
Biological weapon
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Biological agent.
International law
The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention supplements the Geneva Protocol by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological weapons. Having entered into force on 26 March 1975, this agreement was the first multilateral disarmament treaty to ban the production of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. As of March 2021, 183 states have become party to the treaty. The treaty is considered to have established a strong global norm against biological weapons, which is reflected in the treaty's preamble, stating that the use of biological weapons would be "repugnant to the conscience of mankind". However, its effectiveness has been limited due to insufficient institutional support and the absence of any formal verification regime to monitor compliance.