Ireland is a state party to a number of multilateral legal instruments which relate to nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. With regard to nuclear weapons, the primary multilateral regime to prevent proliferation is the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, NPT, which came into force in 1970. The NPT does not prohibit the possession of nuclear weapons by those states which had manufactured and exploded such weapons prior to January 1967.
Article VI of the NPT requires those states parties with nuclear weapons to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures to end the nuclear arms race at an early date with a view to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.
The Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating Poisonous or other Gases, and of Biological Methods of Warfare of 1925 banned the use of both biological and chemical weapons. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, BTWC, which came into force in 1975, prohibits the stockpiling, production and development of biological weapons. The convention has more than 146 states parties and 17 signatories. States parties meet on a regular basis to review the implementation of the convention, most recently in Geneva in November 2002, at which states parties agreed to hold annual meetings until the sixth review conference to be held not later than the end of 2006. Ireland has been a state party since October 1972 and will continue to advocate the necessity of compliance with, and the strengthening of, the convention, in particular its mechanisms of verification.
