OPCW Director-General Pfirter and AU Commission Chairperson Konare signing the Memorandum of Understanding in Khartoum.
On 24 January 2006, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E. Professor Alpha Oumar Konaré, signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union, held in Khartoum, the Sudan from 23 to 24 January 2006.
The Memorandum seeks to enhance cooperation between the two Organisations to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention and to achieve universality in Africa, in accordance with the decision adopted by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union at Durban, South Africa in July 2002 (Decision AHG/Dec.181 (XXXVIII)).
The universality of the Convention in Africa, the effective national implementation of its provisions, and the increased participation by African Member States in the OPCW’s international cooperation programmes are the Memorandum’s key goals. This intensified cooperation will benefit African Member States’ economic and technological development, as well as helping to attain common goals in the field of peace, security and disarmament. The Memorandum also establishes an effective mechanism between the African Union Commission and the OPCW Technical Secretariat to collaborate in areas of mutual interest.
The Memorandum also foresees closer cooperation between the OPCW and the African Union in the implementation of the decisions of the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC on the Action Plan for national implementation, as well as other decisions adopted by the policy-making organs of the two institutions, relating to arms control and chemical weapons disarmament.
At the signing ceremony, African Union Commission Chairperson Konaré stated that cooperation with the OPCW is important for the African Union in achieving peace and security on the continent, as well as contributing towards the fulfilment of the African Union’s goal of establishing a chemical weapons-free zone in Africa. Director-General Pfirter said that the Memorandum serves to solidify and deepen the already existing cooperation between the African Union and the OPCW, thus promoting the universal and effective implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Africa and to foster the peaceful uses of chemistry.
PR2 / 2006