The Hague, 3 December 2003

Belize Joins the Chemical Weapons Convention

Belize deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary General of the United Nations on 1 December 2003.

On 31 December 2003, thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of accession, Belize will become the 158th State Party to the Convention.

The Chemical Weapons Convention is one of the United Nations’ 25 “core treaties”, that each U.N. Member State is urged to ratify so as to ensure peace and prosperity for all. Since the Convention entered into force in 1997, over 80% of the States recognized by the United Nations have joined the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Belize’s accession to this key disarmament instrument, which bans an entire category of weapons of mass destruction, brings the Americas much closer to universal membership.

In the past fourteen months, thirteen new Member States have joined the OPCW (listed here in chronological order): Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Thailand, Palau, Guatemala, Andorra, Timor Leste, Tonga, San Tome and Principe, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Cape Verde and Belize. The continued growth in the Organisation’s membership confirms the universal validity of multilateral instruments banning chemical weapons.

To achieve an effective, global ban on chemical weapons, the OPCW strives to achieve universal adherence to the Convention. Currently, 22 States have signed, but have not yet ratified this treaty. A further 14 States have neither signed nor ratified the Convention.

The Chemical Weapons Convention, banning chemical weapons, entered into force in 1997 and mandates the OPCW to eliminate chemical weapons forever, to verify the timely destruction of all declared chemical weapons, to monitor the non-diversion of dual-use chemicals, to facilitate the mutual assistance and protection afforded to all Member States, if any Member State is threatened by or attacked with chemical weapons, and to promote the peaceful uses of chemistry.