On 29 April 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force, banning forever the development, production, stockpiling, use or transfer of chemical weapons. The Convention has been recognized by the international community as a comprehensive and non-discriminatory legal instrument, which mandates the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to verify the complete elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, the CWC’s non-proliferation regime provides assurance that chemical weapons do not spread and that no new chemical weapons are being produced.
The OPCW was established to implement the Convention as an independent, multilateral disarmament agency. When the OPCW began operation in 1997, the Organisation numbered 87 Member States. One of the key aims of the OPCW is to achieve the Convention’s universal application to ensure that the chemical weapons ban is applied without exception in every country. The membership of the Organisation has grown swiftly to include 168 Member States, extending the Convention’s jurisdiction to 95% of the global population and to 98% of global chemical industry.
Since April 1997, six States Parties have declared chemical weapons stockpiles, totalling more than 71,000 metric tonnes, sufficient in quantity to kill all human life. In over 2,000 on-site inspections, the OPCW’s inspectors have verified the destruction of more than 8.5 million munitions and containers, as well as over 11,000 metric tonnes of chemical agent. All of the declared chemical weapons production facilities have been inactivated, while over 75% of these facilities have been either verifiably destroyed or converted to peaceful purposes. The remainder will be either destroyed or converted by the tenth anniversary of the Convention’s Entry into Force.
OPCW inspectors have conducted on-site verification missions at over 800 chemical weapons-related and industrial sites on the territory of 71 States Parties to ensure compliance with the Convention.
OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, found that the progress made in the past eight years towards a total ban on chemical weapons was encouraging, since the global chemical weapons stockpile is shrinking, while an effective and credible verification and non-proliferation regime is being applied ever more widely around the world. He emphasized that this initial success is a clear indication of States Parties’ political will to achieve the CWC’s goals, which now must be matched with sufficient support and resources to be certain that the CWC’s destruction deadlines can be fully met.
Ambassador Pfirter recalled that national implementation provides the legal and administrative basis enabling States Parties to deter or pursue any breach of the CWC, including the terrorist acquisition or use of chemical weapons. He noted that the OPCW Action Plan on national implementation aims to provide every Member State the support needed to ensure that the Convention’s full protective and deterrent effect can be realized. He assured Member States that the OPCW stands ready to provide the expertise and advice they may request in order to fulfil their national implementation obligations.
16/2005