On the 8th of June 2023, Canada and the Netherlands initiated proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Syria for violating the Convention against Torture (CAT) by inter alia using chemical weapons against the civilian population. This would be the first time ever that the ICJ had the opportunity to deal with chemical weapons in contentious proceedings. This blog post will briefly summarize the most pertinent legal questions and political implications that arise in the context of the ICJ proceedings. It will be demonstrated that the prohibition of chemical weapons is not based on a single legal framework. Rather, we need to look at the chemical weapons taboo comprehensively and from a perspective of multi-normativity.
Autor: Elisabeth Hoffberger-Pippan
Dr. Elisabeth Hoffberger-Pippan ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Programmbereich „Internationale Sicherheit“ und im Projekt CBWNet. Sie forscht zu Fragen der Verifikation und Einhaltung von Verbotsnormen in Bezug auf biologische und chemische Waffen sowie zur Rolle von Künstlicher Intelligenz im militärischen Bereich. // Dr Elisabeth Hoffberger-Pippan is a Senior Researcher at the research department “International Security” and in the CBWNet project. She conducts research on issues of verification and compliance with prohibition norms related to biological and chemical weapons on the role of artificial intelligence in the military domain. | Twitter: @EHoffbergerP
