Geneva Protocol

The Geneva Protocol is the short international instrument formally titled the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. It was done at Geneva in a single copy on the seventeenth of June 1925, with English and French texts both authentic, and the text published by the Avalon Project records its entry into force on 8 February 1928. Its preamble says that the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilised world, and that the prohibition has already been declared in treaties to which most powers are parties. The High Contracting Parties, so far as they are not already parties to such treaties, accept the prohibition, extend it to bacteriological methods of warfare and agree to be bound by it as between themselves. Ratifications and accessions are deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic, which notifies every signatory and acceding power, and the Protocol comes into force for each signatory from the date of deposit of its ratification.