Legislative issues course

The final point that bears mention is the requirement for States Parties to provide access for OPCW inspections. National legislation must, of course, meet each state s constitutional requirements relating to access to private property. Nonetheless, in order to avoid a conflict between international and national obligations, CWC States Parties should be careful to ensure that the standard for the issuance of any required warrants is as low as possible. In addition, given the short timelines for OPCW inspections, and particularly for challenge inspections, States Parties should ensure that warrants can be issued on an expedited basis. 

It is of course essential to respect the rights, beliefs, and wishes of everyone involved in such issues. In cases where direct ancestry can be demonstrated, human remains should be returned to descendants for reburial. But in many cases, there are no direct hues of affiliation. Native American groups have been decimated and pushed from place to place across more recent American history. So much information is lost to science, to Native American peoples, and to all of us by the reburial and eventual destruction of these skeletal remains. We would know much more about the human past if such materials were available for study. We can only hope that legislation such as NAGPRA will be revisited and revised in light of a more realistic perspective on the importance of the past. 

The Austrian Chemicals Law of 1987, which does not apply to H oducts regulated by other legislation, requires notification of new chemical substances, and regulations implementing this were issued in 1989. The notification system is similar to the former Sixth Amendment EC scheme of Council Directive 79/831/EEC. [22]. In due course the Austrian notification scheme will in principle become harmonized with the updated Seventh Amendment EC scheme of Council Directive 92/32/EEC [12], because Austria is one of the 6 EFTA countries participating in the agreement with the EC to form the EEA. 

Changes to legal requirements in OHS legislation can catch employers unawares, until someone in the workplace raises the issue. This may occur because a health and safety representative has just been to a training course. He or she comes back more aware of hazards, and usually acts out of genuine concern, although the odd individual may act primarily to demonstrate that fellow workers were correct in electing them. 

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