In the last quarter, important developments in the area of the universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) occurred.
On 20 November 2008 the Republic of Lebanon deposited its instrument of accession to the CWC with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Convention will enter into force for Lebanon on 20 December 2008, and it will become the 185th State Party of the Convention. Until now, Lebanon was among the five countries in the Middle East that have not joined the Convention. Therefore, Lebanon’s accession is an important step towards promoting in the region confidence in the Convention as a factor for advancing peace and security.
The accession by Lebanon followed a high-level visit carried out by a team of the OPCW Technical Secretariat to Beirut, in August 2008, at the request of the Lebanese authorities. This visit was a follow-up to one carried out in August 2007, and included meetings with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, the Minister of Justice, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Immigration Commission of Parliament, as well as the Commander-in-Chief ad interim of the Army. The visit contributed to promoting goodwill and offered an opportunity to further discuss the benefits that Lebanon would derive from acceding to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Lebanon was represented at the following OPCW events that took place in The Hague:
- Eighth Induction Workshop for Diplomatic Personnel held on 30 and 31 October 2008,
- Tenth Annual Meeting of National Authorities, held on 28 to 30 November 2008,
- EU sponsored Day for National Authorities on 1 December 2008, and
- 13th Session of the Conference of the States Parties, held in The Hague from 2 to 5 December 2008.
During this quarter, the Iraqi law on accession to the Convention was published on the Official Gazette of Iraq on 29 September 2008. The Secretariat was further informed that the instrument of accession had been signed and was in the process of being deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Iraq was also represented at the 13th Session of the Conference of the States Parties.
Other important developments have also taken place in the GRULAC region. On 22 April 2008, the Senate of the Dominican Republic – a Signatory State – had approved ratification of the Convention and forwarded the dossier to the Chamber of Deputies for its consideration. During his meeting with the Acting Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations on 4 November 2008, the OPCW Director-General was further informed that that State’s Chamber of Deputies had approved the bill on ratification of the Convention.
Simultaneously, in the Bahamas the ratification process seems to have recently regained momentum. At the request of the Government of the Bahamas a Technical Secretariat’s team travelled to the Bahamas in the second week of December 2008, for a high-level visit. In that context, the Secretariat’s experts addressed a consultation meeting among national stakeholders relating to the ratification and implementation of the Convention.
The Secretariat’s efforts to promote the universality of the Convention also continued with Myanmar, a Signatory State. Meetings were held with high-level representatives of Myanmar in Geneva, as well as with representatives from the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar, who were sponsored by the Technical Secretariat to attend the OPCW’s Fourth Assistance-and-Protection Course for States Parties in Asia, held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in September 2008. Two representatives of Myanmar were also sponsored to participate in the OPCW’s subregional training course for customs authorities in Southeast Asia on technical aspects of the transfers regime, held in Malacca, Malaysia, from 6 to 9 October 2008.