Technical Secretariat

Provisional Technical Secretariat Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons... 

Conference of States Parties ( All member states), yearly conference or as required, the Executive Council of 41 member states which meets regularly throughout the year and the Technical Secretariat of 506 staff members from 66 nationalities. The operating 2005 Budget is approx 76.5 million Euros. 

The Conference shall establish at its first session the voluntary fund for assistance in accordance with Article X (Article VIII, subparagraph 21(j)) The Executive Council shall conclude agreements with States Parties on behalf of the Organisation in connection with Article X and supervise the voluntary fund referred to in Article X (Article VIII, subparagraph 34 (b)) and the Technical Secretariat shall administer the voluntary fund referred to in Article X (Article VIII, subparagraph 39(c)). 

The Technical Secretariat shall ...coordinate the establishment and maintenance of permanent stockpiles of emergency and humanitarian assistance by States Parties in accordance with Article X, paragraphs 7(b) and (c). ... 

CCME (Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment) (1995) Protocol for the Derivation of Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life, Prepared by the Technical Secretariat of the CCME Task Group on Water Quality Guidelines, Ottawa, Canada. 

When off-site analysis is to be performed, samples shall be analysed in at least two designated laboratories. The Technical Secretariat shall ensure the expeditious processing of the analysis. The samples shall be accounted for by the Technical Secretariat and any unused samples or portions thereof shall be returned to the Technical Secretariat. 

The Technical Secretariat shall compile the results of the laboratory analysis of samples relevant to compliance with this Convention and include them in the final inspection report. The Technical Secretariat shall include in the report detailed information concerning the equipment and methodology employed by the designated laboratories. 

On the basis of this framework from the CWC, the Technical Secretariat and the OPCW Laboratory have built a complex network of linked procedures for sampling and analysis and related activities. Experience gathered during inspections, training, exercises, and proficiency tests led to improvement... 

The presence of the only one and removable hard disk was requested by decision of Conference of the State Parties on its first session (3). In Attachment 6 of the decision 71 concerning specific operational requirements for GC/MS system, it says that all data in nonvolatile memory must be retainable at the inspected site under joint custody of the Technical Secretariat (TS) and the inspected State Party. The hard disk with all raw data may be considered as containing highly protected information and requested to be left on site of inspection. 

The OPCW owns five Bruker EM 640S GC/MS systems for performing on-site analysis during inspections. The OPCW Laboratory - which is a part of Technical Support Branch of the OPCW Technical Secretariat - is responsible for the management of the systems. This implies ... 

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) SOP-LAB-EQP-005, Bruker EM640S Portable GC/MS with AMDIS Data Analysis Software (Blinded Mode) for Qualitative Analyses of Liquid Samples Prepared by On-site Methods, Version 3, The Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, 1999. 

At present, the decision on the relevancy of chemicals is left to the participants, whereas the Technical Secretariat would be in a better position to make such judgments. After all, the Technical Secretariat has full information on the facility under inspection, whereas the participants do not receive this information. 

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. 

There were differences identified in the degree of difficulty between the first 10 proficiency tests. These differences are a result of the changing sample composition, that is, different matrices, spiking chemicals, and background materials. It is mainly a laboratory s experience in the analysis of CWC-related chemicals that seems to allow the participants to cope with these varying challenges. The Technical Secretariat tries to maintain a similar degree... 

There is one element within the proficiency test process that causes difficulties for many of the participants. The proficiency-testing scheme trains participants to not report chemicals that are considered irrelevant within the scenario of the test and which, in real off-site analysis, could reveal confidential information that is considered not relevant in the context of the CWC. A review on how the test scenarios were applied revealed that participants are not really in a position to judge the relevancy of chemicals. It rather should be the Technical Secretariat making a final decision on the relevancy of chemicals instead, and, for that reason, accept the reporting of any chemical given that it is a degradation product of a Scheduled chemical or directly related to a Scheduled chemical. 

As a result of the first ten official OPCW proficiency tests, the Technical Secretariat has designated 13 laboratories out of the approximately 22 regular participants worldwide. The performance of these 22 laboratories has been studied in detail, which revealed areas of strengths and weaknesses for each of them. The latter information may become useful for the Technical Secretariat when selecting designated laboratories for the analysis of authentic samples and when identifying particular training requirements. 

M. Rautio, Interlaboratory Comparison Test Coordinated by the Provisional Technical Secretariat for the Preparatory Commission for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, H.l. First Interlaboratory Comparison Test, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Helsinki, 1994. 

The main purpose of the OCAD is to support the verification activities of the Technical Secretariat (Secretariat) as provided for in the CWC. Copies of the OCAD are made available to all States Parties. 

The first international interlaboratory comparison (round-robin) test for the verification of chemical disarmament took place in 1989 as a Finnish initiative. This test and three subsequent tests were coordinated by Finnish CW Project(2). The Provisional Technical Secretariat (PTS) of the Preparatory Commission of the OPCW coordinated the first international interlaboratory comparison test in 1994 (3) and two trial proficiency tests in... 

The Central OPCW Analytical Database, Technical Secretariat of the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, 2002, Version 5. 

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