Use of Biological Weapons

The deliberate deployment of pathogens or biological toxins, such as bacteria, viruses or their derived toxins, to cause death or disease in humans, animals or plants, whether in armed conflict or in a deliberate attack on a civilian population. The development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons is banned under the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, the first multilateral treaty to prohibit an entire category of weapons of mass destruction, and their use in armed conflict is separately addressed as a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Confirmed state use has been rare since the treaty entered into force, though isolated non-state and criminal uses of biological agents, such as small-scale bioterrorism incidents, have occurred and are prosecuted under a combination of national terrorism and public health security statutes.