Chemical Weapons Convention verification

Republic of Poland Laboratory for Chemical Weapons Convention Verification, Military Institute of Chemistry and Radiometry 29-Jun-1999 Designated... 

Graham H. Cooper, The Chemical Weapons Convention Verification Regime , UNIDIR Newsletter, No. 20 (December 1992), p. 11. 

The Army has a good understanding of miscellaneous chemical warfare materiel to be destroyed and has documented them by location, configuration, quantity, and type. However, changes are likely to occur as materiel is added or deleted as a result of the Chemical Weapons Convention verification process. The materiel is predominantly metal containers and munitions components. Some of the components contain explosive charges that may need to be extracted before disposal. 

United Kingdom, Chemical Weapons Convention Verification and... 

Chemical Weapons Convention Verification Handbook on Scheduled Chemicals (1993), University of Saskatdiewan and Researdi Unit of External Affairs and International Trade, Canada. 

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) opened for signature in Paris, on January 13, 1993 and entered into force on April 29, 1997. Its complexity is reflected in almost 200 pages of text, containing Preamble and 24 Articles and three Annexes On Chemicals (6 p), On Implementation Verification (105 p), and On Protection of Confidential Information (5 p) [2], To the main pillars of the CWC belong ... 

Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN), University of Helsinki, Finland... 

The Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and of their destruction (the Chemical Weapons Convention, CWC) was signed on January 13, 1993, and entered into force on April 29, 1997. The CWC includes 24 Articles, the Annex on Chemicals, the Annex on Implementation and Verification (so-called Verification Annex), and the Confidentiality Annex. The Verification Annex, which by the length occupies the majority of the CWC, is written in 11 parts. Article I lists the general obligations of the CWC as shown in Figure 1. 

Chemical Weapons Convention Chemicals Analysis discusses sample collection, sample preparation and analysis, and concentrates on verification that takes place on site, analyses off site, and methods and procedures used. In the first part of the book is discussed the mobile laboratory of the OPCW and instrumentation and software used therein, as well as other on-site analysis equipment, procedures, and strategies. The OPCW gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer for on-site analysis is described and... 

M. Mesilaakso, and M. Rautio, Verification of chemicals related to the chemical weapons convention, Table 1, in Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry Instrumentation and Applications, R.A. Meyers, (Ed.), Vol. 1, John Wiley Sons, Ltd, Chichester, 2000, pp. 899-909. 

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) provides sampling and analysis as a tool for verification. General procedures to use sampling and analysis are outlined under the general rules of verification in the Verification Annex (VA) Part II paragraph 52-58, special provisions concerning different types of inspections are given in various parts of the VA. 

Sampling and analysis (S A) during inspections is one of the verification tools provided for by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) (1). Chemical analysis of a sample is the only direct and scientific (and not only circumstantial) tool to confirm the presence of a chemical substance. The presence of a declared chemical in a declared place at a declared time and in declared quantities confirms the declaration provided by a State Party to the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons). The actual or past presence of a chemical, which should not be at the inspected site according to the declarations, or, which has... 

Between 1989 and 1993, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFTN) initiated four international interlaboratory comparison (round-robin) tests for the verification of chemical disarmament (2) to test the effectiveness of their procedures for the recovery of treaty-related chemicals (Chemical Warfare agents... 

During the Preparatory Commission and the first couple of years after EIF, the corresponding electronic version obtained from the Contributor was sent to the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN (Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention) actively participated in the building of the electronic version of the OCAD.) for incorporation into the electronic version of the OCAD. The original idea was to include all the different types of analytical data in a single relational database. The database developed by VERIFIN is a relational database (VERIFY) (for more information on the VERIFY database, contact VERIFIN (Finland)), which contains all the different... 

The reliable verification of chemicals related to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC-related chemicals) depends essentially on the collection of good samples and well-planned, effective, and reasonably simple sample preparations suitable to the method of analysis. The collection of good samples is arguably the most critical part of a successful analysis and this is discussed in a separate article (see Chapter 3). For its part, proper preparation of samples requires a thorough understanding of the behavior of the various types of chemicals in different sample matrices, both before and during... 

This article reviews the sample preparation methods for analytical techniques used in offsite laboratories. The procedures described are from the ROPs (7) and procedures followed at the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, VERIFIN. The usefulness of the methods as demonstrated in international comparison and proficiency tests is noted. 

Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention... 

V.T. Borrett, R.J. Mathews and E.R. Mattsson, Verification of the chemical weapons convention mass spectrometry of alkyl methylphosphonoflu-oridates, Aust. J. Chem., 47, 2065-2074 (1994). 

V.T. Borrett, R.J. Mathews, R. Colton and J.C. Traeger, Verification of the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention the application of electrospray mass spectrometry, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 10, 114-118 (1996). 

Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN). The spectra are presented in their original form (size reduced from A4) to show layout and format of library spectra that have been acceptable to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Central Analytical Database (OCAD). The experimental conditions shown are the standard conditions used by the laboratory for the particular experiment. 

Some infrared spectra of chemicals related to the CWC can be found in open literature. The largest collection of spectra can be found in two of the so-called Blue Books of the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFIN) published in 1977 and 1982 <16 17). Also, Blue Books describing the results of international interlaboratory comparison tests contain some example spectra (18 22). Shagidullin et al. (23) have published an IR atlas of organophosphorus... 

Dr. Mesilaakso is currently Acting Director of the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (VERIFTN former CW Project) at the University of Helsinki. Before this, he worked at VERIFIN as a Research Scientist, Quality Manager and Research Director. He is a member of the Finnish National Authority of the CWC, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Defense of Finland, and a member of the OPCW Validation Group for data evaluation to the OPCW Central Analytical Database. 

The States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) have established the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to achieve the object and purpose of the Convention. It aims to ensure the implementation of the CWC s provisions, including those for international verification of compliance with it, and to provide a forum for consultation and cooperation among States Parties. The aim of this book is to give a comprehensive view of how to internationally verify compliance with the CWC, in principle, using analytical chemistry and related strategies and methods. 

At the conclusion of the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1992, this treaty was heralded as a major breakthrough in multilateral arms control. It was the first comprehensively verifiable multilateral treaty that completely banned an entire class of weapons, and went further than any previous treaty in the depth, extent and intrusiveness of its verification. Verification under the CWC includes compulsory national declarations about relevant industrial and military activities, destruction of chemical weapons within a time frame with intrusive verification, and a regime of routine inspections of declared industrial and military facilities. Additional features are the possibility of a challenge inspection, whereby a State Party can request an inspection of any site in another State Party at short notice, and provisions for the investigation of alleged use of chemical weapons. 

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