The Tenth Session Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), convened from 7 to 11 November in The Hague, the Netherlands, has concluded on 11 November 2005.
These were the highlights of the Conference
* A record number of the 175 States Parties were in attendance, as well as three of the eleven States that have signed but not yet ratified the CWC, Comoros, Djibouti, and Israel. In addition, four States that have neither signed nor ratified the Convention were also in attendance as observers, Angola, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. International organisations also were present as observers, including, the Council of the European Union, the League of Arab States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), as well as fourteen non-governmental organisations and chemical industry associations.
* The Permanent Representative of Peru to the OPCW, H.E. Ambassador Mr Jose Antonio Arróspide, was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the 10th Conference and will hold office until the next regular session in 2006.
* The Conference supported unanimously the renewed appointment of H. E. Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to one further term of four years, beginning on 25 July 2006 and ending on 24 July 2010.
* The programme of work and budget for 2006 was reviewed and approved by the Conference. The budget totals EUR 75,614,241. Over half of this expenditure is allocated to the verification of the CWC, in such areas as destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles, the elimination of chemical weapons production capacity and the non-proliferation of chemical weapons. The programme of work foresees a total of 180 inspections in the course of 2006: sixteen Schedule 1 inspections, forty-six Schedule 2 inspections, twenty-eight Schedule 3, and ninety Other Chemical Production Facility inspections (OCPF).
* The Conference granted the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in principle, further extensions of the intermediate phases deadlines for the destruction by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya of its Category 1 chemical weapons stockpiles. The Conference authorised the Executive Council to establish specific dates for the intermediate deadlines, and to report on its actions to the Conference at its Eleventh Session.
* In the Conference’s review of the status of national implementation measures on the part of States Parties, the Conference undertakes to review this status further at its Eleventh Session and to consider and decide on any appropriate measures to be taken, if necessary, in order to ensure fulfilment by States Parties of their Article VII obligations.
* In its decision on the Action Plan to achieve the universality of the CWC, the Conference called upon all States not Party to join the Convention without delay, in particular those whose non-adherence is a cause for serious concern.
* All States Parties and the Secretariat are urged to intensify their universality-related efforts with a view to increasing the number of States Parties to at least 180 by the end of 2006 and to achieving the universality of the Convention 10 years after its entry into force. The Conference decided to continue with the action plan, and to review progress of that plan, at its Eleventh and Twelfth Session. At the Twelfth Session, which occurs 10 years after the entry into force of the Convention, it will review the implementation of the plan and take any decision it deems necessary, in particular addressing the status of those States not Party whose non-adherence to the Convention is a cause for serious concern.
* Mr Muhammad Yunis Khan, Auditor-General of Pakistan, and Mr Norbert Hauser, Vice-President of the German Supreme Audit Institution, have been appointed as External Auditor of the OPCW for subsequent terms from 2006 to 2008 and 2009 to 2011, respectively.
* The Conference endorsed both a proposal for the establishment of a Day of Remembrance of all victims of chemical warfare, which would be observed each year on 29 April, the anniversary of Entry into Force of the Convention, as well as endorsing the dedication in The Hague of a permanent memorial to these victims.
* The Conference also recommended that the Executive Council at one of its sessions establish an open-ended working group to begin, in cooperation with the Secretariat, preparations for the Second Special Session of the Conference of the States Parties to Review the Operation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which will take place in 2008.
* The Conference recommended to the Executive Council the establishment of an ad hoc, open-ended working group to examine a proposal to establish an OPCW Office in Africa.
71/2005