The Hague, 25 September 2003

Afghanistan joins the Chemical Weapons Convention

Afghanistan deposited its instrument of ratification to the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary General of the United Nations on 24 September 2003.

Afghanistan will become the 155th State Party to the Convention on 24 October 2003, thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

The OPCW’s five Member States in Central Asia include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan is a Signatory State. Afghanistan’s ratification brings the realization of universality in Central Asia significantly closer and is a noteworthy enhancement of the Chemical Weapons Convention’s non-proliferation regime.

In the past 12 months, 10 new Member States have joined the Organisation—Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Thailand, Palau, Guatemala, Andorra, Timor Leste, Tonga, Sao Tome and Principe and Afghanistan. This consistent rise in the Organisation’s membership further confirms the universal validity of multilateral instruments banning chemical weapons.

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997. The Convention's implementing agency, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, aims to achieve four principal objectives: the elimination of chemical weapons and 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 in the peaceful use of chemistry.