Green denotes a State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Yellow —Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo and Guinea-Bissau— denotes a State which has signed but not yet ratified the Convention. Red —Angola, Egypt and Somalia— denotes a State which has neither signed nor acceded to the Convention.
The boundaries, names and designations that appear on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the OPCW.
The Republic of Liberia deposited its instrument of ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 23 February 2006. Thirty days after that date, on 25 March 2006, Liberia will become the 178th State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) implements the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Liberia’s ratification of the Convention confirms the global validity of this multilateral instrument, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, use or transfer of chemical weapons, and promotes collective security through the verified elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
Now over 98% of the global population falls within the Convention’s jurisdiction. To ensure a complete, global ban on these weapons, the OPCW is pursuing an action plan to acquire every State’s membership in the Organisation by 2007. Since the action plan was launched in October 2003, eight African States have become OPCW Member States: Libya, Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, and Liberia. Following Liberia’s ratification of the Convention, 46 of the 53 African States are OPCW Member States.
The goal of achieving the Convention’s universal and effective application in Africa is also being pursued through intensified cooperation between the OPCW and the African Union. At the 2006 African Union Summit, held in Khartoum, Sudan, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the African Union Commission and the OPCW Technical Secretariat whose key objectives include establishing a chemical weapons-free zone in Africa.
As an OPCW Member State, Liberia will benefit from the OPCW’s international cooperation and assistance programmes that aim to enhance the national capacity to implement the Convention and to engage in the peaceful uses of chemistry.
The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997. Adherence to the Convention contributes to global peace and security and its universal and effective implementation provides concrete benefits for all OPCW Member States. The Convention’s implementing agency, the OPCW, aims to achieve four principal objectives: to eliminate chemical weapons, to prevent their re-emergence and spread, to provide assistance and protection upon any State Party’s request in the event of the use, or threat of use, of chemical weapons, and to promote international cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry.
The OPCW urges the remaining sixteen States that have not yet joined the CWC to do so as soon as possible.
PR11 / 2006