Home > OPCW Membership > Member States
Introduction | Member States | Signatory States | Non-Signatory States
Africa | Asia | Eastern Europe | Latin America and the Caribbean | Western Europe and Others

Membership of the OPCW

Status of Participation in the Chemical Weapons Convention

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction was adopted in Geneva on 3 September 1992 by the Conference on Disarmament, which transmitted it to the United Nations General Assembly at its forty-seventh Session. The General Assembly commended the Convention and requested the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, as Depositary, to open it for signature in Paris on 13 January 1993. The Convention remained open for signature in Paris from 13 to 15 January 1993, and thereafter at United Nations headquarters, New York, until 29 April 1997, when it entered into force. It had been signed by 165 States. States that did not sign the Convention before entry into force may accede to it at any time thereafter.

For States that ratify or accede to the Convention after 29 April 1997, it enters into force on the thirtieth day after the date of the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Depositary of the Convention.

The following table lists, for each State Party, the dates on which it signed the Convention and/or deposited its instrument of ratification or accession with the Depositary, and on which the Convention entered or will enter into force for it. It also indicates whether a State Party has established a National Authority. Each State Party is required, under Article VII, paragraph 4, to “designate or establish a National Authority to serve as the national focal point for effective liaison with the Organization and other States Parties”. The National Authority must be designated by the date of the entry into force of the Convention for the State Party concerned.

*The date of deposit is the date on which the instrument of accession of ratification is received by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Depositary. Throughout this table, "[a]" means "deposit of instrument of accession".

Top of the page

Download the contact details of National Authorities.

Introduction | Member States | Signatory States | Non-Signatory States
Africa | Asia | Eastern Europe | Latin America and the Caribbean | Western Europe and Others