The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will hold a high-level meeting [PDF – 21 KB] at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 1 October 2012. The meeting coincides with the opening of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly.
The theme of the meeting is: “Fifteen Years of the Chemical Weapons Convention: Celebrating Success, Committing to the Future.” Its purpose is to generate support for the long-term objectives of the Convention and to provide impetus to the Third Review Conference scheduled to be convened in April 2013. UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon will open the event. Ministers and Senior Officials from States Parties will address the meeting.
The Chemical Weapons Convention represents an unqualified success in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation and is a testament to effective multilateralism in the service of international peace and security.
The OPCW has become the fastest-growing disarmament and arms control treaty organisation in history with 188 States Parties and covers 98% of the world’s population. This represents an overwhelming global consensus to eliminate these weapons. In this time the OPCW has verified with on-site inspections the destruction of over three-quarters of all declared chemical weapons – an unprecedented achievement in the annals of disarmament – together with the destruction or conversion for peaceful purposes of the facilities associated with the production of chemical weapons.
With the complete elimination of declared chemical weapons now in sight, the long-term goals of universality of the Convention and the prevention of the re-emergence of these weapons will assume centrality in the work of the OPCW. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the prohibitions of the Convention be upheld for all times to come and that the OPCW continue to provide an assurance of security to its States Parties against chemical threats
The successful implementation of the global chemical weapons ban since its entry into force is proof that disarmament succeeds. Attention and commitment at the highest levels in governments will ensure its enduring validity as a barrier against an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
The event will be broadcast on http://webtv.un.org beginning at 15:00 (3 pm) EST.