Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare

  The OPCW Technical Secretariat , headquartered in The Hague, is tasked with facilitating the implementation of the Convention. Two of its divisions, the Verification Division and the Inspectorate Division , are central to the administration and operation of the verification regime. Moreover, the International Cooperation and Assistance Division supports States Parties in their efforts to meet their obligations under the Convention. The OPCW Laboratory, a part of the Technical Secretariat’s Verification Division, backs the Convention’s verification regime by maintaining advanced sampling and analytical technologies functional to both routine inspections and field missions. Moreover, it shares with the Inspectorate Division training and certification responsibilities for analytical chemist inspectors. The OPCW Laboratory is located in the OPCW Centre for Chemistry andTechnology , a state-of-the-art facility just outside of The Hague that was inaugurated in 2023 and is commonly re...

OPCW inspector training on using a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) Over 25 years after its entrance into force, the CWC remains a strong treaty, thanks in no small part to its robust verification regime . Key factors that contribute to the verification regime’ robustness include the general purpose criterion, which ensures that any present and future chemical weapon threats are squarely within the scope of the Convention’s ban; the breadth of verification mechanisms , which cover a wide range of possible violation scenarios; and the role of the Science Policy Adviser and the Scientific Advisory Board in keeping the OPCW abreast of  science and technology developments. In the summer of 2023, the CWC achieved a pivotal milestone towards its disarmament objective: with the completion of the destruction of the United States’ chemical stockpiles, all chemical stockpiles declared by the States Parties at the time of their ratification or accession to the Convention—a st...

  Since its entry into force in 1997, the CWC has imposed a comprehensive ban on chemical weapons, defined succinctly as weaponized toxic chemicals along with any munitions and devices designed for the dissemination of such chemicals. As outlined in Article I, the Convention prohibits not only their use but also their development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, and retention. The ban extends to engaging in military preparations to use chemical weapons and to providing support to those who intend to engage in activities prohibited by the CWC. Additionally, the CWC mandates that States Parties destroy all their chemical weapons and related facilities, including those abandoned on the territory of another State Party, and prohibits the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare. Looking at the flip side of the coin, it must be recognized that the potential diversion of chemistry towards chemical warfare is only a marginal ramification of the broader field. Indeed, chemi...