Ensuring Compliance with International Obligations Applicable to CBRN Weapons: Supervisory Mechanisms, Sanctions, and Inter-State Litigation

This chapter focuses on the wide array of mechanisms aimed at ensuring compliance with international obligations applicable to CBRN weapons. It examines the verification system mandated by arms control and disarmament agreements, as well as the investigative bodies established by the United Nations to determine the circum-stances surrounding the development or use of CBRN weapons. It deals with the adoption of penalties and sanctions to counter CBRN weapons, and then looks at the use of chemical weapons in Syria, as a testing ground for appraising the effectiveness of the rules and mechanisms discussed above. It finally provides final remarks on some recent (and prospective) disputes brought before the International Court of Justice regarding obligations applicable in this field. By discussing different mecha-nisms designed to induce compliance and mapping them according to the four phases of the CBRN emergency management cycle, this chapter purports, ultimately, to bring out their deficiencies, strengths, connections, as well as the issue of coordination and cooperation among the tasks entrusted to the United Nations and the su-pervisory organizations dealing with CBRN weapons.