Aim
To ensure broader outreach and to improve the capacity of Member States to enforce the transfers regime, by engaging national and regional customs training institutions that are expected to incorporate Convention modules into their curricula.
Content
The course will focus on the following areas:
- the OPCW and the provisions of the Convention;
- the rights and obligations of States Parties to the Convention;
- the identification of chemicals relevant to the Convention, including those in the WCO Harmonized System;
- the recommendations of the WCO with regard to scheduled chemicals; and potential changes to the Harmonized System;
- the role and responsibilities of National Authorities and their stakeholders (including customs authorities) under the provisions of the Convention;
- sources of information for customs officials and customs laboratories, including the OPCW Handbook on Chemicals, the online scheduled chemicals database, the OPCW Central Analytical Database, and various useful websites;
- customs-related matters such as discrepancies in reporting transfers of scheduled chemicals, free ports and free zones, risk assessments, transhipments, and software used by customs services; and
- practical exercises, group discussions, and presentations.
At the end of the course, all participants should have developed follow-up plans for introducing the Convention module into their training curricula or, where relevant, strengthening existing modules.