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| The Hague, 24 June 2005 | |||
On 28 June 2005, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairman of the African Union, H.E. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR), will visit the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
President Obasanjo will be met by OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, who will brief the President on the status of implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, in particular on the African continent.
Following his meeting with Director-General Pfirter, President Obasanjo will be welcomed to the Forty-First Session of the Executive Council by its Chairman, H.E. Alfonso M. Dastis, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Spain to the OPCW. President Obasanjo will then address the Executive Council.
The OPCW African Group within the Executive Council comprises nine Member States: Algeria, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, South Africa, Sudan and Tunisia. In total, 43 African States are party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The African Union and the OPCW are jointly pursuing the universal implementation of the Convention in Africa . At its constitutive session in Durban , South Africa in July 2002, the new African Union adopted Decision AHG/Dec. 181 (XXXVIII) on the Implementation and Universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention. That important decision recalled the steadfast position of Africa regarding weapons of mass destruction. It recommended effective implementation of the Convention through sustained technical assistance from the OPCW and encouraged the call to achieve the universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Africa.
The 2004 Workshop on the Universality and the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention held in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia was organised in close collaboration with the Commission of the African Union. The Workshop concluded that each State's own national security interests are its primary motivation to join and implement the CWC, noting that the full implementation of the CWC could serve as a powerful deterrent to terrorists. The Workshop also encouraged the African Union to seek to establish a Chemical Weapons-Free Zone in Africa.
The remaining ten States not party to the Chemical Weapons Convention in Africa are actively encouraged by the African Union and the OPCW to seek the support of the OPCW to facilitate their ratification or accession to the Convention.
African States have played a pivotal role in the successful negotiation, and subsequently the implementation, of the CWC. Since the Entry into Force of the CWC on 29 April 1997, African States have shared the responsibility of the Convention's equitable and effective global implementation through their dedicated participation in the work of the OPCW's policy-making organs, including holding the chairmanship of both the Executive Council and in the Conference of the States Parties to the CWC.
The African Group designates nine members of the Executive Council. From 12 May 2005 to 11 May 2006, the following are the Member States of the African Group to the Executive Council: Algeria, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco, South Africa, Sudan and Tunisia.
The members of the African group include:
As at 20 June 2005 , the African Group has 43 Members. In total, ten African States have yet to join the Convention: seven African States of this region have not yet deposited their instruments of ratification, while three African States, which did not sign the Convention, have yet to accede.
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