Tenth Annual Meeting of OPCW National Authorities

The Tenth Annual Meeting of National Authorities was held at OPCW headquarters in The Hague from 28 to 30 November 2008. A total of 190 participants from 92 States Parties attended the meeting, including from all regional groups – Africa (25), Asia (23), Eastern Europe (18), Latin American and the Caribbean (9), and West Europe and Other States (17). Lebanon, a State not Party, also participated and informed the Technical Secretariat that the government deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 20 November 2008.

The OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, opened the meeting by noting that 177 of the 184 States Parties to the CWC have now established National Authorities, and urged the remaining seven States Parties to do so at the earliest as the starting point for national implementation of the Convention. The Director-General added that the OPCW has made rapid strides in achieving universality and welcomed Lebanon’s decision to join the Convention. He expressed the hope that other States not Party in the Middle East will follow Lebanon’s example as soon as possible.

Director-General Pfirter stressed the crucial role played by National Authorities to achieve the object and purpose of the Convention. He acknowledged that many National Authorities continue to have capacity constraints and reiterated the Technical Secretariat’s commitment to provide them assistance in the form of implementation support and capacity building programmes. This includes training in the use of Electronic Declaration software for National Authorities (EDNA), which has been developed by the Technical Secretariat for National Authorities to make their declarations to the OPCW electronically.

The thematic focus of the meeting was to provide the chemical industry’s perspective on the implementation of the CWC, and the Technical Secretariat provided information on recent initiatives relating to Article VI declarations and verification issues. Participating National Authorities shared their experiences in national implementation, and regional groups discussed ways and means to foster regional and sub-regional cooperation in implementing the Convention.

OPCW News 42/2008