On 11 November 2008 the city of Ieper in Belgium commemorated the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. On behalf of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Deputy Director-General Mr John Freeman, laid a wreath at the Menin Gate in Ieper as part of the solemn memorial ceremony.
For the OPCW, Ieper represents a stark reminder of the horrors that chemical weapons can cause. It was here that poison gas was used on a large scale for the first time on the battlefields around this city on 22 April 1915. The great numbers of people killed and maimed due to the chemical warfare propelled international efforts for a comprehensive ban on chemical weapons that was eventually realised in the form of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Organisation has named its Executive Council chamber the Ieper Room in remembrance of the victims of the battle of 1915.
The OPCW is represented at this ceremony in Ieper annually, as an expression of the support and commitment of 184 States Parties for a world free from the scourge of chemical weapons.