Call for Nominations for the Tenth Regional Meeting of National Authorities of States Parties in Asia

On behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Director-General wishes to invite National Authorities to nominate staff to attend the Tenth Regional Meeting of National Authorities of States Parties in Asia, which will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 26 to 28 June 2012.

At its Eighth Session, the Conference of the States Parties (hereinafter “the Conference”) adopted a plan of action regarding the implementation of Article VII obligations (C 8/DEC.16, dated 24 October 2003), and at its subsequent regular sessions adopted decisions on the follow-up to that plan (C-10/DEC.16, dated 11 November 2005; C 11/DEC.4, dated 6 December 2006; C-12/DEC.9, dated 9 November 2007; C-13/DEC.7, dated 5 December 2008, C-14/DEC.12, dated 4 December 2009; and C-15/DG.11, dated 27 October 2010). The Second Special Session of the Conference of the States Parties to Review the Operation of the Chemical Weapons Convention encouraged the States Parties and the Technical Secretariat (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) to continue to support the implementation by States Parties of the aforementioned decisions of the Conference in order for them to achieve full implementation of their Article VII obligations.

This meeting will serve as a forum in which States Parties in the region can present their needs for assistance in relation to Article VII and indicate what assistance they can offer to other States Parties in this regard. In addition, it will help the Secretariat to determine how it can enhance the assistance it offers to States Parties in the region in the light of the aforementioned Conference decisions.

The meeting will also serve as a forum in which representatives of National Authorities can confer with each other and with Secretariat staff in order to identify what further steps, if any, each participating State Party needs to take in order to implement its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (hereinafter “the Convention”).