Mozambique acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by depositing its instrument of accession with the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday 15 August. Under the terms of the CWC, the Convention will accordingly enter into force for Mozambique on 14 September of this year.
On the occasion of Mozambique’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of its independence, on 25 June, President Joachim Alberto Chissano stated: “We have discarded weapons, and are now building peace and mutual respect, conscious of the fact that our freedom cannot be attained at the expense of the freedom of others.” Mozambique’s accession to the CWC is a clear demonstration of its determination to enhance peace and stability in Africa and to contribute to the international community’s goal of completely eliminating chemical weapons from the face of the earth.
As the outgoing chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mozambique is viewed as a key to achieving the universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention on the African continent. Mozambique’s accession to the CWC should provide the impetus for the other African countries, in particular the three SADC members which are not yet States Parties-Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia-to accelerate their own processes of accession or ratification.
The Director-General of the OPCW, Mr José Bustani, welcomed Mozambique’s accession to the CWC, and reiterated the call of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, for those governments, in Africa and elsewhere, which have not yet done so, to ratify or accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention-one of the core twenty-five international treaties for which the UN Secretary-General is the Depositary-during the upcoming United Nations Millennium Summit, which will take place from 6 – 8 September in New York.
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