ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how disarmament treaties address the use of weapons. In most instances, global disarmament treaties–those that prohibit the development, production, stockpiling, and transfer of a weapon and require its destruction–also outlaw directly the weapon’s use by the state and its agents. In contrast, the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention allows use of certain chemical agents, such as riot control agents, in law enforcement. New employment of a prohibited weapon in the conduct of hostilities–for example by dropping a bomb or firing a missile or a rocket against an enemy target–is clearly at the heart of the notion. The first global disarmament treaty concluded by states was the Biological Weapons Convention in 1971. In a number of other instances, the use of specific weapons has been prohibited as a means of warfare by law of armed conflict treaty. Very few disarmament treaties address the threat of use of a weapon.
