Participants at the Workshop on Defense, Security and the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
The OPCW in partnership with the African Union and the governments of the United States and South Africa jointly organised a “Workshop on Security, the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Cooperative Threat Reduction in Africa” in Pretoria, South Africa from 2–6 March 2015.
A total of 36 representatives from 21 Member States in the region participated in the Meeting. Also in attendance were representatives from Angola and South Sudan, both currently non-States Parties to the CWC.
Resource persons from VERTIC, Sandia National Laboratories, U.S State and Defense Departments, the African Union RECs/RMs, the South Africa Revenue Service, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Institute of Security Studies and UNREC supported the event.
The Meeting was a follow up to a “Seminar on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)” which was held at the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) Academy, in Pretoria, South Africa, from 23-26 April, 2013.
The Meeting provided a framework for participants to devise country-specific integrated approaches to the implementation of not only the CWC but other related treaties and obligations, including UNSCR 1540. Participants identified specific activities and intervention which they on one hand and the partner agencies, the African Union and its RECS/RMs on the other, may undertake to further promote national implementation.
* Botswana, Cape Verde, Chad, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia (The), Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Tunisia.