Syria and the OPCW

The OPCW is responsible for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons.  

The Syrian Arab Republic became a State Party to the CWC — and a Member State of the OPCW — in October 2013. As a result of a joint OPCW-UN mission (October 2013 – September 2014) in cooperation with the Syrian government, all of the chemical weapons declared by Syria were removed and verifiably destroyed outside of its territory. However, questions about the completeness of Syria’s declaration remain. 

As every other State Party to the Convention, Syria is subject to the following obligations: 

• Never under any circumstances to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain, transfer or use chemical weapons (Article I of the Convention);  

• Submit timely, accurate, complete declarations related to chemical weapons and chemical weapons facilities on its territory (Article III of the Convention);  

• Cooperate with the OPCW in the exercise of all its functions and provide assistance to the Technical Secretariat (Article VII of the Convention).  

To ensure Syria’s compliance with its obligations under the Convention, there are currently three different OPCW missions with an active mandate to work on chemical weapons verifications issues: the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT), the OPCW Fact-Finding mission (FFM), and the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT). All three missions have different mandates. Their findings are based on scientific methods and evidence, and are provided to Member States and other entities (for example,  the United Nations Security Council) on a regular basis.