Inspections chemical weapons

Decides that the Technical Secretariat shall inspect chemical weapons buried on the territory of a State Party after 1976 or dumped at sea after 1984 on the basis of declarations submitted to this effect, taking into consideration that such weapons have to be accessible in terms of the identification thereof as required in Article IV and the relevant provisions of Part IV of the Verification Annex and... 

Inspection Team Leader / Senior Medical Officer Inspectorate, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Johan de Wittlaan 32 2517 JR Den Haag. The Netherlands Tel. +31 (0)70-416.31.74 Fax +31(0)70-306.35.35 E mail Clarence.Brown ,opcw.org... 

The foundation of the CWC s inspection activities was based around the declaration by member states of their chemical weapons capabilities and activities. Nations with chemical warfare programmes were required to declare their production, storage and destruction facilities, which would then receive top monitoring priority. Nevertheless, the CWC did allow states to maintain research programmes to ensure the integrity of defensive equipment such as gas masks and gas detectors, but these activities were also to be closely monitored since they involved work with the chemical agents listed on Schedule l.9 Otherwise, all other warfare agents, mustard gas, Lewisite, soman, sarin, tabun, VX and the capability to produce them were to be eliminated under the watchful eyes of international inspectors (Table 8.1).10 The convention thus defined chemical weapons as any toxic chemical, or its precursors, intended for purposes other than those not prohibited under this convention for... 

Until member states make the effort to review declarations and demand access to the final reports from inspections, they will be in no position to ascertain whether other states have accurately declared their military and civilian chemical capabilities. Nonetheless, the declarations are reviewed avidly by those member states that take chemical weapons seriously. The CWC denies access to the raw inspection reports, but not to compilations of data from them, which, again, are read avidly. However, given... 

Chemical weapon disarmament has progressed far since the first attempts were made a 100 years previously to outlaw the use of chemical weapons in war. The CWC still holds the best promise for reducing the threat of chemical warfare by building an environment of confidence and security. As well as instruments of verification and inspection, the CWC also possesses resort to aid and assistance in the area of chemical warfare defences in case of attack. In the final analysis, however, the overriding aim of the CWC continues to be the effective ban of all chemical weapons, complemented by the desire to promote the peaceful use of chemicals in industry. Whether such incentives will balance the pressure to acquire such weapons remains to be seen. 

The role of S A at a Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility (CWDF) is different than in other types of inspections. At a CWDF, the main objective of S A is to confirm the identity of a particular chemical that has been declared, that is, the declared chemical agent that is being destroyed. Further,... 

In conformity with the relevant provisions in the Confidentiality Annex the inspected State Party shall have the right to take measures to protect sensitive installations and prevent disclosure of confidential information and data not related to chemical weapons. Such measures may include, inter alia . .. 

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... 

The Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) provides a proficiency-testing scheme for the analysis of samples in the context of the CWC. The design of the scheme should simulate analysis of authentic samples that are taken during inspections. The purpose of the scheme is to select, certify, and train highly competent laboratories for the analysis of CWC-related chemicals in various matrices. The Technical Secretariat designates laboratories, which perform successfully in the scheme, to support it in such analysis should they become necessary during the course of its verification activities. 

Seventeen States Parties (SP) have volunteered to provide services of their high-level chemical analytical laboratories to the Organization for prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW). From these SPs, 18 laboratories (2004) have been designated by the Director-General (DG) of the OPCW to perform analyses as part of the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) (1). For the purpose of effective implementation, for example, analysis of samples taken during inspections or... 

States Parties are required to designate or establish a National Authority to ensure the effective implementation of the CWC. The National Authority makes the initial and subsequent annual declaration on chemical weapon stocks or facilities, coordinates and participates in the receipt of OPCW inspections of industrial and military sites, participates in assisting and protecting member states under threat or actual chemical attack, and promotes the peaceful use of chemicals. The National Authority is thus the focal point in a country s interaction with other countries and the OPCW. The Technical Secretariat of the OPCW helps in the provision of advice, assistance and capacity development of relevant skills and expertise in the staff of national authorities. The secretariat also hosts and coordinates regular meetings of the national authorities from all over the world. 

The six countries to have declared chemical weapons are required to destroy some 8.5 million items, including munitions and containers. As of April 2005,167 countries had joined the OPCW. ° All declared chemical weapons production capacity had been inactivated, with two-thirds of the declared facilities either verifiably destroyed or converted for peaceful purposes. With respect to chemical weapons, the inventory of all declared stockpiles had been completed and verified, but less than one-quarter of the declared 8.5 million chemical weapon munitions had been verifiably destroyed. Of the 70,000 tonnes of declared chemical weapons agents, only about 15 per cent had been verifiably destroyed just a tiny drop of nerve agent the size of a pin head can kill an adult within minutes of exposure. Almost 5,000 industrial facilities around the world are liable for inspection the OPCW had conducted almost 2,000 inspections at 170 military and 600 industrial sites in 68 countries. 

The destruction of these declared stockpiles has made considerable progress. There have been difficulties and delays, but there is no doubting the full commitment of all possessor States Parties to complete the destruction of all their chemical weapons within the time frames established by the Convention. Furthermore, facilities that were used in the past to produce chemical weapons are being destroyed or converted for legitimate purposes. Destruction as well as conversion operations are subject to systematic verification by the OPCW, which has conducted more than 1,800 inspections, in 65 States Parties, since the beginning of inspections in 1997. More than 1,000 of these inspections were conducted at CW facilities (CW storage facilities, former CW production facilities, destruction operations, and locations where old and/or abandoned chemical weapons are being recovered and destroyed). Some... 

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. 

The majority of inspections conducted so far by the OPCW inspectorate have been associated with verifying the destruction of chemical weapons. There are two major reasons for this situation. The first is that the United States and Russia never concluded the bilateral destruction agreement that had been envisaged during negotiations on the CWC, which would have seen the bulk of the verification of destruction of the US and Russian CW stockpiles being conducted by bilateral inspection teams, with OPCW inspectors providing only complementary verifica-... 

The challenge inspection system of the Chemical Weapons Convention Problems and prospects... 

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