Chemical Weapons: Abandoned Relic or Ticking Bomb?

Venue: Auditorium Pictet, Maison de la paix, Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2 Exactly 100 years ago the world experienced the first large-scale use of chemical weapons. As the conflict in Syria has shown too well, the use of chemical weapons in warfare is not just a practice of the past, but still holds a potential for tremendous levels of suffering and death. The documentary Chemical Weapons: An Insidious War takes the audience across the globe to discover the effects, international agreements, and the difficulties to control chemical weapons. From the Belgian fields of WWI, and surprising disarmament cooperation between Japan and China, to the accounts of Syrian survivors, the film spans time and place to highlight that chemical weapons should be as much of a concern today as they were a century ago. Following the film, the discussants will debate the danger of chemical weapons and why we must also take them seriously in the future. Although the Chemical Weapons Convention is seen as a relative success of international cooperation, analysts are increasingly concerned that chemical weapons may experience a resurgence for instance in their use by non-state actors. Discussants: - Sergey Batsanov, Director of Pugwash Geneva, former Soviet then Russian Ambassador to the Disarmament Conference - Peter Sawcek, Head, Government Relations and Political Affairs Branch, Acting Spokesperson of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague - Jean Pascal Zanders, CCDP Research Associate, Head of the Trench disarmament consultancy Moderator: - Adam Koniuszewski, Chief Operating Officer of Green Cross International Film: Chemical Weapons: An Insidious War, 2015, 52 min, VO w. English subtitles. This event is jointly organised by the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding and Green Cross International REGISTRATION: http://graduateinstitute.ch/fr/home/research/centresandprogrammes/ccdp/events-1/registration-event-may-6-2015.html