CHAPTER 5. United Nations Mechanisms to Combat the Development, Acquisition and Use of Chemical Weapons

Abstract

This chapter explores the “tool box” of measures, precedents and procedures that the United Nations—and in particular the UN Security Council—has created and employed to combat attempts by a range of States and non-State actors to develop, acquire or employ chemical weapons. The chapter firstly examines the application of UN mandated investigatory procedures—specifically the UN Security-General's Mechanism—that can be employed in cases of suspected chemical or biological weapons attack; and highlights the significant advance following the establishment in 2013 of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons–United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (OPCW–UN JIM), which was tasked with identifying specific entities it deemed to be responsible for utilising chemical weapons in Syria. The chapter then explores sanctions that the UN can impose in response to confirmed threats to “international peace and security” including mandatory arms embargoes. It also explores the rare occasions—Iraq (1992) and Syria (2013)—when the threat to international security was deemed so grave and immediate that UN monitoring, verification and compliance enforcement mechanisms were tasked with entering the target States to facilitate/oversee destruction of all chemical weapons stockpiles and elimination of chemical weapons production facilities. The chapter concludes with an examination of the measures that the UN Security Council has adopted, notably under UNSC Resolution 1540, to specifically combat the proliferation and use of chemical weapons by non-State actors.