Mr Gennadi Lutay, Head of OPCW Assistance and Protection Branch (l), and Mr Rudolf Müller, Deputy Director and Chief of Emergency Services Branch, UN OCHA
The Technical Secretariat of the OPCW has signed Interface Procedures with the Emergency Services Branch of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a meeting at the UN OCHA headquarters in Geneva.
The Interface Procedures will operate within the framework of the existing agreement between the United Nations and the OPCW, which provides in subparagraph 2(d) of Article II that both organisations “shall, in accordance with their respective mandates, explore possibilities for cooperation in the provision of assistance to States concerned in cases of the use or serious threat of use of chemical weapons,” as provided for in paragraph 10 of Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In this respect, areas of potential mutual cooperation – and possible actions related to the notification and reporting, mobilisation of resources and response to an emergency situation involving the use, or threat of use, of chemical weapons or riot control agents as a method of warfare – were identified.
The establishment of Interface Procedures will allow both Organizations to optimise their respective assistance activities and ensure a coordinated approach during the response to an emergency, to avoid potential duplication of activities, and to benefit mutually from lessons learned.