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Published on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 14:55
The use of a Trident nuclear
missile, or its successor, would breach international
law, the government is warned today. Even the threat to
use nuclear weapons is unlawful, ministers are
warned in a legal opinion by leading human rights
lawyers.
They say use of Trident would infringe what
the International Court of Justice calls the
\"intransgressible\" - or absolute - requirement that
a distinction must be drawn between combatants and
non-combatants. Nuclear weapons would also breach the
requirement that use of force in self-defence must be
proportionate.
\"A Trident warhead would be
inherently indiscriminate,\" says Rabinder Singh, QC,
and professor Christine Chinkin of the London School of
Economics, in a legal opinion for the campaigning group,
Peace Rights.
\"In light of the blast, heat, and
radioactive effects of a detonation of a Trident
warhead, it is impossible to envisage how the
intransgressible requirement of the principle of
distinction between combatants and non-combatants or the
requirement of proportionality\" could be
met.
\"Even if aimed at a military target a
Trident warhead cannot distinguish between that and
civilians. Radioactive effects are not contained by time
or space.\" They say the distinction between civilians
and combatants is a key feature of the statute setting
up the International Criminal Court which Britain has
signed up to.
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Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament 
