The Hague, 14 February 2003

Palau Joins the CWC

Palau deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary General of the United Nations on 3 February 2003.

Palau will become the 149th State Party to the Convention on 5 March 2003, thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

Palau is also the 10th member of the Pacific Islands Forum to join the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), following Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

In the past five months, the Organisation’s membership has been expanded by the accession or ratification of four new States Parties: Palau, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa and Thailand. The growth in the Organisation’s membership confirms the universal validity of multilateral instruments banning chemical weapons.

With Palau’s accession, there are only 19 States that have not signed the Convention and remain, therefore, entirely outside the global ban on chemical weapons. 26 States have signed but have yet to ratify the Convention.