Home > Assistance and Protection > Chemical Terrorism
Introduction | OPCW and Global Struggle against Terrorism | Possible Responses
Chemical terrorism refers to the use of chemical weapons by terrorists to threaten, injure, or kill people.
The OPCW is particularly concerned that the use of chemical weapons by terrorists could have devastating consequences, resulting in thousands of casualties. In Japan, the Aun Shinrikyo cult released the chemical agent sarin in a terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. About five thousand people became sick and a dozen were killed.
The OPCW did not yet exist in 1995. If the Organisation had existed, Japan could have requested its assistance. After the OPCW was established in 1997, the Organisation was able to verify that the building and the equipment used by the terrorists to produce those chemical weapons were completely destroyed.
Chemical disarmament, and the OPCW's efforts to ensure that chemicals produced for peaceful purposes are not misused, provide some guarantee that terrorists will not be able to acquire or make their own chemical weapons. The Chemical Weapons Convention (the Convention) gives the world a legal basis for the fight against the use of chemical weapons. The enforcement by all countries of the Convention's requirement to make the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons illegal for anyone would mean that terrorists could be put on trial for violating the Convention.
The OPCW's expertise and knowledge of chemical weapons are being put to use to prevent and respond to chemical terrorism.
The United Nations Security Council has adopted Resolution 1540. Now, all nations are obliged to take action, ensuring that non-State actors cannot develop, produce, use or trade chemical weapons.