Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/13pdf/12-158_6579.pdf
Page Number: 6

Cite as:  572 U. S. ____ (2014) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

mated to have been caused by chemicals . . . , a large part 
following  the  introduction  of  mustard  gas  in  1917.”    Ken-
yon,  Why  We  Need  a  Chemical  Weapons  Convention  and 
an  OPCW,  in  The  Creation  of  the  Organisation  for  the 
Prohibition  of  Chemical  Weapons  1,  4  (I.  Kenyon  &  D.
Feakes  eds.  2007)  (Kenyon  &  Feakes).  The  atrocities  of 
that  war  led  the  community  of  nations  to  adopt  the  1925 
Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemicals as 
a method of warfare.  Id., at 5. 

Up  to  the  1990s,  however,  chemical  weapons  remained 
in use both in and out of wartime, with devastating conse-
quences. 
Iraq’s  use  of  nerve  agents  and  mustard  gas
during its war with Iran in the 1980s contributed to inter-
national  support  for  a  renewed,  more  effective  chemical 
weapons  ban.  Id.,  at  6,  10–11.  In  1994  and  1995,  long-
held  fears  of  the  use  of  chemical  weapons  by  terrorists 
were  realized  when  Japanese  extremists  carried  out  two 
attacks  using  sarin  gas.    Id.,  at  6.   The  Convention  was 
conceived  as  an  effort  to  update  the  Geneva  Protocol’s 
protections  and  to  expand  the  prohibition  on  chemical 
weapons  beyond  state  actors  in  wartime.  Convention 
Preamble,  1974  U.  N.  T.  S.  318  (the  State  Parties  are 
“[d]etermined  for  the  sake  of  all  mankind,  to  exclude
completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons, 
. . . thereby complementing the obligations assumed under 
the  Geneva  Protocol  of  1925”).  The  Convention  aimed  to 
achieve  that  objective  by  prohibiting  the  development, 
stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons by any State Party 
or  person  within  a  State  Party’s  jurisdiction.    Arts.  I,  II, 
VII. 
It  also  established  an  elaborate  reporting  process
requiring State Parties to destroy chemical weapons under
their  control  and  submit  to  inspection  and  monitoring  by
an  international  organization  based  in  The  Hague,  Neth-
erlands.  Arts. VIII, IX. 

The Convention provides: