An inspector receives his graduation certificate. The 12-week eighth inspector training course conducted by the OPCW was completed on 11 April 2008 by 27 inspector trainees from 18 different nationalities.
The eighth inspector training course conducted by the OPCW was completed on 11 April 2008 by 27 inspector trainees from 18 different nationalities: Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, India, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Tunisia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan.
The 12-week intensive training was supported by the Governments of Belgium, Serbia, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States of America.
This year’s programme was expanded to include lectures from experts in chemical demilitarisation and industry verification. In addition, the course has segments that reviewed case studies and had table-top exercises to ensure familiarity with on-site inspection procedures. The practical side of the course included field training to impart skills required for protection against use of chemical weapons and potential toxic exposure, which involved dealing with “live” blister and nerve chemical warfare agents.
The inspectors received medical and communications instruction aid and were also given instructions on OPCW safety procedures. One of the core elements of this training was the mock inspections, conducted at declared facilities in Italy and Switzerland that generously agreed to host the events.
The new recruits will be joining an international team of more than 180 inspectors, who collectively have completed more than 175,000 inspector days while conducting missions at over 1,200 military and industrial facilities in 80 CWC States Parties since 1997.
In June 1997, the OPCW Inspectorate received its first mission mandate to verify compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entirely bans the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons, and foresees their destruction under an international verification regime within agreed destruction timelines.