Global Security Newswire

British scientists have raised concerns that the government of the United Kingdom could be preparing to authorize the creation of "incapacitating chemical agents" for use by police, the London Independent reported on Tuesday (see GSN, Nov. 6, 2009).

A new expert report by the Royal Society concludes London has seemingly changed its posture on a clause in the Chemical Weapons Convention that permits the governmental use of "riot control agents" as a tool of law enforcement but not in warfare.

Previously, London had accepted that only low-level materials that cause eye irritation and coughing are permitted under the accord and then only for "peaceful" means such as taming rowdy crowds.

In 2009, however, government ministers offered a more expansive interpretation of the CWC clause that indicated stronger types of chemical agents could be used in police activities if they met particular standards. There has been a growing concern about such material, particularly in the wake of the 2002 siege at a Moscow theater in which more than 100 hostages died after apparent exposure to a suppression agent,

The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the creation, production and utilization of chemical warfare materials such as mustard agent and sarin nerve gas by armed forces.

The Royal Society called on the government to release a statement explaining its reasoning for its seeming shift to permit the development and use of materials that would incapacitate a subject.

"The development of incapacitating chemical agents, ostensibly for law-enforcement purposes, raises a number of concerns in the context of humanitarian and human-rights law, as well as the Chemical Weapons Convention," the report reads (Steve Connor, London Independent, Feb. 7).

More broadly, member nations to the Chemical Weapons Convention "should address the definition and status of incapacitating chemical agents under the CWC at the next review conference in 2013," the report says.

It adds: "In addition to the review conference process, states parties should initiate informal intergovernmental consultation on the status of incapacitating chemical agents under the CWC" and "the implementing bodies of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and CWC should improve coordination to address convergent trends in science and technology with respect to incapacitating chemical agents" (Royal Society report, February 2012).