Weapons that use harmful insects or other living or dead organisms or their toxic products to inflict diseases and pathological changes on human beings and animals. They can also destroy or damage crops. The use, manufacture or stockpiling of bacteriological (biological) weapons is prohibited.

 OUTLINE

Chapter 9, bacteriological and biological weapons

 LEGAL SOURCE

CIHL, Rule 73

 DOCUMENTS

ICRC, Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity

Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, London, Moscow and Washington, 10 April 1972

 BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES

Suggested reading :   DANDO Malcolm, “The Development of International Legal Constraints on Biological Warfare in the 20th Century”, in The Finnish Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 8, 1997, pp. 1-69.   GOLDBLAT Jozef, “The Biological Weapons Convention – An Overview”, in IRRC, No. 318, May-June 1997, pp. 251-265.   ROGERS Paul, “Biological Weapons”, in Medicine, Conflict and Survival, Vol. 18/2, 2002, 105 pp.   SOLOMON Brian (ed.), Chemical and Biological Warfare, New York, Wilson, 1999, 158 pp.   ZILINSKAS Raymond A. (ed.), Biological Warfare, Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, 309 pp.   Further reading :   CLUNAN Anne L., LAVOY Peter & MARTIN Susan B. (eds), Terrorism, War, or Disease?: Unraveling the Use of Biological Weapons, Stanford, Stanford Security Studies, 2008, 350 pp.   KELLMAN Barry, “Biological Terrorism: Legal Measures for Preventing Catastrophe”, in Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 24/2, 2001, p. 417-488.   LEDERBERG Joshua (ed.), Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1999, 351 pp.   YUZON E.F.J., “Deliberate Environmental Modification Through the Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons: Greening the International Laws of Armed Conflict to Establish an Environmentally Protective Regime”, in American UniversityJournal of International Law and Policy, Vol. 11, 1996, pp. 793-846.   ZALUAR Achilles & MONTELEONE-NETO Roque, “The 1972 Biological Weapons Convention – A View from the South”, in IRRC, No. 318, May-June 1997, pp. 295-308.