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Treaties and Documents
Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Additional Protocols, and their Commentaries
Historical Treaties and Documents
Treaty relating to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare. Washington, 6 February 1922.
State parties (10)
State signatories (1)
The Washington Conference of 1922 on the Limitation of Armaments, in which five of the victorious Powers of World War I took part, adopted the present Treaty, which, due to the failure of France to ratify it, did not enter into force. Article 5 of this treaty relates the use of noxious gases; the other provisions deal with submarine warfare. The treaty has not entered into force by reason of doubts concerning the provisions on submarine warfare. The wording of Article 5 dealing with gas warfare corresponds to that of the Geneva Protocol of 17 June 1925.
According to Article 6, the Treaty would have entered into force once ratified by the five victors of the First World War (United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan) to the depositary, the Government of the United States. The Treaty has not entered into force, because France has not ratified.
Forum of adoption :
Conference on the Limitation of Armaments
In force :
Meetings of forum :
12.11.1921 - 06.02.1922, Washington
Date of adoption :
United States of America
Number of articles :
Authentic text :
D.Schindler and J.Toman, The Laws of Armed Conflicts, Martinus Nihjoff Publisher, 1988, pp.877-879.
Download document(s) :
IHL-34-EN.pdf (9.83 kb)