Arms Trade Treaty: Weapons Of Mass Destruction

ABSTRACT

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) including chemical, nuclear, biological and radioactive weapons along with anti – personnel landmines have the potential of causing mass destruction as well as killing human beings. Starting from the World War II the use of such warfare weapons have been quite prevalent and ever increasing, reaching a stage of convenient arm flows today. A major impact of the usage of such weapons is that they pose an unprecedented collection of challenges to peace and security of the nations which thus brings into picture the International Humanitarian Laws to protect the lives of humans, environment, property and even moral credibility and harmony worldwide. Arms Trade Treaty is one such effort by UN to regulate

Over the years, with the improvement in technology now WMD is used for any such weapon which carries the potential of causing large scale devastation and mass casualties.
WMD or weapons of mass destruction has become a common expression in the political and security fields due to the consistent efforts to prevent the proliferation of such weapons.
The name conveys a sense of fear and threat. It indicates that it has definitely indiscriminate and deadly consequences. Under weapons of mass destruction we will basically discus about nuclear, radioactive, biological, chemical weaponries along with anti- personnel land mines and explosive remnants of war. WMD are weapons that can kill and harm a large number of people as well as destroys property. The meaning and the scope of the term has increased and evolved over the time from aerial bombings to now technical weapons i.e. chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons (CBRN). Several International treaties and conventions have been signed by many countries but not all of them, for governing the use and development of WMD: Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Partial Test Ban Treaty, Nuclear Seabed Arms Control Treaty, Outer Space Treaty, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

They have become a part of the world and become an involuntary fragment. The use of WMDs over the decade has even shifted from security to purely destruction. Most terrorist groups use WMDs as they possess political goals and have traditional, ethnic, nationalist, or ideological associations which make it necessary for them to use such weapons solely for the sake of destruction. These terrorist groups want to gain politically from their attacks and create terror in the minds of the people which may even not require the use of WMDs in certain cases like the WTC attack. These attacks just aggravate with the use of WMDs.
Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization is one of the examples of a terrorist group that uses nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons for mass destruction. It even is continuing to develop and use such weapons as well as making attempts in obtaining radioactive material for a radiological weapon.
All of these types of weapons of mass destruction discussed above prove to be very dangerous to our society and environment. In the further sections it will be made clear as to what changes have taken place in the production, development and usage of such havoc-causing weapons and how it is slowly becoming a part of all the