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Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
•The Palestinians have joined the global convention to halt the spread of toxic arms, the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
• Palestine will become the 193rd state to join the CWC.
•In 2012, the United Nations upgraded the Palestinians to a non-member observer state.
•Interpol, the International Criminal Court, UNESCO, and now the OPCW all refer to the
Palestinian territories as a state.
ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROHIBITION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which
entered into force on 29 April 1997.
•The organisation is not an agency of the United Nations, but cooperates both on policy and practical issues.
• On 7 September 2000 the OPCW and the United Nations signed a cooperation agreement outlining how they were to coordinate their activities.
•The OPCW has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands, and oversees the global endeavor for the
permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons.
• Only four countries, including Israel, have yet to sign up to the CWC, which aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
• On 11 October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the OPCW had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “extensive work to eliminate chemical weapons”
•The CWC prohibits the development, production, acquisition and stockpiling of chemical weapons by its member states
• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.
• The full name of the treaty is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction and it is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons(OPCW).
Key points of the Convention
• Prohibition of production and use of chemical weapons
• Destruction (or monitored conversion to other functions) of chemical weapons production facilities.
• Destruction of all chemical weapons (including chemical weapons abandoned outside the state parties territory).
• Assistance between State Parties and the OPCW in the case of use of chemical weapons
• An OPCW inspection regime for the production of chemicals which might be converted to chemical weapons.
• International cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry in relevant areas
The convention distinguishes three classes of controlled substance, chemicals that can either be used as weapons themselves or used in the manufacture of weapons.
• Schedule 1 chemicals have few, or no uses outside chemical weapons. These may be produced or used for research, medical, pharmaceutical or chemical weapon defence testing purposes but production at sites producing more than 100 grams per year must be declared to the OPCW.
• Examples are sulfur mustard and nerve agents, and substances which are solely used as precursor chemicals in their manufacture. A few of these chemicals have very small scale non-military applications, for example milligram quantities of nitrogen mustard are used to treat certain cancers.
Schedule 2 chemicals have legitimate small scale applications. Manufacture must be declared and there are restrictions on export to countries that are not CWC signatories. An example is thiodiglycol which can be used in the manufacture of mustard agents, but is also used as a solvent in inks.
Schedule 3 chemicals have large-scale uses apart from chemical weapons. Plants which manufacture more than 30 tonnes per year must be declared and can be inspected, and there are restrictions on export to countries which are not CWC signatories.
• Examples phosgene (the most lethal chemical weapon employed inWWI and triethanolamine, used in the manufacture of nitrogen mustard.
INDIA AND OPCW
Mr Venu Rajamony, Permanent Representative of the Republic of India
•India ratified the CWC in 1996, and in 1997 declared a stockpile of 1,044 tons
of Sulfur Mustard.
• Destruction was completed in 2009 making it the third state to completely
destroy its chemical weapons stockpile.
•India’s chemical industry is a major sector of the Indian economy that includes trade
in dual-use chemicals.
• In order to fulfill its obligations under the CWC, India established the National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention (NA CWC) on 29 April 1997 as an office in the Indian Cabinet Secretariat.
• serves as the primary liaison to the OPCW.
• India abstained from voting on Russia’s proposal at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for a joint Anglo-Russian investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in the UK by a military grade nerve agent.
• Russia’s proposal was rejected by the OPCW’s Executive Council which comprises 41 state parties.
Ques. Explain the role of OPCW in limiting the use of chemical weapons across the world.
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