1991 Banning of Chemical Weapons

The United Nations first addressed a chemical weapons ban in 1948, when the United Nations Commission for Conventional Armaments defined chemical and biological weapons as weapons of mass destruction. It was not until 1966 that the first General Assembly resolution devoted specifically to the question of chemical and biological weapons was adopted. The use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) provided a new impetus for a chemical weapons law. In January 1989, a special conference in Paris was felt to have brought the global community closer to a ban of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons are relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture. The task to negotiate an effective ban is formidable.