RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DETERMINING THE FREQUENCY OF SYSTEMATIC ON-SITE INSPECTIONS OF STORAGE FACILITIES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH PART IV (A), PARAGRAPH 44, OF THE VERIFICATION ANNEX

(PARIS RESOLUTION, SUBPARAGRAPH 12(L))

The Conference

Recalling that the Commission in its PC-VII/8, paragraph 6.12, adopted the criteria for the determination of the frequency of inspections developed by the Expert Group on Chemical Weapons Storage Facilities and outlined in paragraph 9 of the Annex to PC-V/B/WP.13, and in Appendix B to the same Report,

Bearing in mind that the Commission recommended in paragraph 42.2 of its Final Report that the Conference adopt the above mentioned recommendations,

Hereby:

1. Adopts the criteria for the determination of the frequency of systematic on-site inspections of chemical weapons storage facilities, annexed hereto.

Annex

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Annex

Once facility declarations have been received by the OPCW, a determination should be made as to which facilities should be inspected first. Once all initial inspections are complete and facility agreements finalised, the OPCW should then decide on the frequency of inspection of each facility. In determining the frequency of inspections at a particular CW storage facility, due regard should be given to any Executive Council decision to avoid duplication of adequate bilateral or multilateral verification regimes already applied to the facility. Possible criteria that could be used by the Technical Secretariat to determine the priority and frequency of inspection of a CW storage facility are at Annex B. These criteria are purposely qualitative and do not represent an exhaustive listing. The Conference wished to include these criteria which the Technical Secretariat may, on receipt of declarations and inspection reports, make more quantitative in nature.

POSSIBLE CRITERIA FOR DETERMINATION

OF FREQUENCY OF INSPECTIONS

The criteria below could be considered when determining the frequency of inspection for each facility.

CRITERIA3	HIGHER FREQUENCY	LOWER  FREQUENCY
Quantity of chemicals  defined as CW 4	Larger quantity	Lower quantity
Readiness of CW for use	a. CW is weaponized  b. Binary components are collocated c. CW can  be used immediately	a. CW is not weaponized   b. Binary components are in separate CW storage facilities that are not in close proximity to each other 5  c. CW can be used  only after substantial preparation or modification
Quantity of unfilled munitions, sub-munitions, devices or equipment	Larger quantity	Lower quantity
Results of previous inspections	Inconsistencies with requirements of the Convention or unresolved ambiguities reported	No substantial inconsistencies or unresolved ambiguities reported

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