Yemen ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention on 2 October 2000. This important step by Yemen, in the strategically important region of the Middle East, brings the OPCW closer to achieving the universality of the Convention. It is hoped that Yemen’s initiative will encourage the dwindling number of nations, both in this region and outside it, which have yet to ratify or to accede to the Convention, to follow suit.
Yemen will become the 140th State Party to the Convention on 1 November 2000, thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The number of signatory States, i.e. those which have signed the Convention, but which have yet to ratify it, currently stands at 34.
28/2000