The 19th Session of the Conference of the States Parties
The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention concluded its 19th session this morning at the World Forum in The Hague, having adopted a number of decisions and recommendations that will guide the work of the OPCW over the coming year.
This year’s conference was attended by 132 States Parties (of 190 total), together with six international organisations, specialised agencies and other international bodies, and 32 non-governmental organisations.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the host country, the Netherlands, Mr. Bert Koenders addressed the Conference. The UN Secretary General was represented by Ms. Angela Kane, the High Representative for Disarmament.
Director-General Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, while presenting his report to the Conference, stated that the achievements over the past year were made possible by the strong consensus-based approach of the States Parties, which has been a long-established hallmark of our collective efforts to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“2015 will be an important year in many respects,” the Conference chairperson, H.E. Ms Vesela Mrđen Korać of Croatia, noted in her closing remarks. “While keeping the momentum in destruction of existing stockpiles of chemical weapons under international verification we will need to prepare the organisation for a gradual transition to the post destruction phase.”
Several interventions on OPCW’s historic mission to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons programme were made during the Conference.
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Myanmar, Mr. Thant Kyaw, informed that Myanmar’s parliament would consider ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention in early 2015.
The conference adopted a 2015 programme and budget for the OPCW Technical Secretariat.
Official documents, decisions, statements and other information from the conference can be found on the CSP-19 page of the OPCW website at www.opcw.org/csp-19/