The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, opened the Workshop on the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 5 October 2005.
The OPCW, in close coordination with the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the African Union, organised the Workshop at the Headquarters of the African Union Commission to promote the universality and implementation of the CWC in Africa.
During the course of the Workshop, Director-General Pfirter met the representatives of nine African States that are taking part in the Workshop and are preparing to join the CWC: Angola, Central African Republic, Congo, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, and Guinea-Bissau. He encouraged these States to join the Convention as soon as possible, offering the Organisation’s fullest support in that process.
In his address to the workshop, Director-General Pfirter thanked the OPCW’s partners in the region, the African Union, the Government of Ethiopia and the European Union for their support of the Workshop and the Convention’s full and effective implementation. He underscored the need to acquire the membership of every State in Africa and throughout the world to promote the cause of peace and security. Director-General reminded the Workshop that the CWC belongs to all people, and all countries, large and small, and not merely a few countries, namely those possessing chemical weapons or the industrial capacity to develop them. Director-General Pfirter called upon the States that had not yet joined to seize the opportunity to take decisive action to achieve the common goals of the OPCW and the African Union to consolidate peace, security and development in Africa.
Representatives from six OPCW Member States, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, and Tunisia, also attended the meeting. Experts and representatives from the European Union, and the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs were also in attendance.
The workshop provides expert-level presentations on the CWC’s legal, administrative and enforcement mechanisms, as well as on the benefits to be derived from OPCW membership through the programmes for protection and assistance against and for the enhancement of international cooperation programmes to foster the peaceful uses of chemistry in all African States. The representatives from States that are not yet OPCW Member States will be able to conduct consultations with a view to developing a quick process for adopting the CWC.
At present, 43 African countries have joined the Convention.
56/2005