PR01: Twenty-Eight OPCW Member States Have Paid

The Hague, 16 January 2001			Number 01

Press Release

Twenty-Eight OPCW Member States Have Paid Their Contributions to its 2001 Budget

Twenty-eight Member States of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have so far paid in full their financial contributions to its budget for the current financial year. As of today, these Member States were:

Brunei Darussalam	Liechtenstein
Bulgaria	Federated States of Micronesia
Cameroon	Pakistan
Canada	Poland
Côte d’Ivoire	Romania
Czech Republic	Saint Lucia
Finland	Saudi Arabia
Holy See	South Africa
Iceland	Sri Lanka
India	Swaziland
Kuwait	Turkey
Latvia	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Lesotho	Uzbekistan
Malta	Zimbabwe

While this is a welcome development, tTaken together, the contribution of these 28 Member States equals only 10.75% of the Organisation’s budget for 2001.

Annual contributions to the OPCW by each Member State are calculated primarily on the basis of the United Nations scale of assessment, which is adjusted to match the composition of the OPCW’s membership. In accordance with the Organisation’s financial regulations, Member States are obliged to pay their contributions to its budget by 1 January of each year.

The timely payment by Member States of their annual contributions is essential for the effective functioning of the OPCW, which is tasked, inter alia, with verifying the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In this context, the Director‑General of the OPCW, Mr José M. Bustani, thanked the above‑mentioned Member States for their timely payments, and urgedexpressed his confidence that the other Member States wouldto soon follow suit as soon as possible.

The membership of the OPCW has grown from 129 Member States in January 2000 to 141 Member States in January 2001. As of today the OPCW had carried out more than 900 inspections of civilian and military facilities in 48 States Parties since the entry into force of the Convention on 29 April 1997.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) came into existence on 29 April 1997. Its deed of foundation—the Chemical Weapons Convention—aims to achieve four principal objectives: the elimination of chemical weapons and of the capacity to develop them, the verification of non-proliferation, international assistance and protection in the event of the use or threat of use of chemical weapons, and international cooperation and assistance in the peaceful use of chemistry.

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