Djibouti Ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention

Djibouti deposited its instrument of ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 25 January 2006. Thirty days after that date, on 24 February 2006, Djibouti will become the 176th State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention and is the 45th African State to join the treaty. With Djibouti’s ratification, sixteen member states of the League of Arab States are now also party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) implements the Chemical Weapons Convention. The OPCW is pursuing an Action Plan to acquire the membership of every nation within the Organisation by 2007, ten years after the Chemical Weapons Convention’s entry into force, to ensure that the ban on these weapons is universally applied. Since the Action Plan’s adoption in 2003, seven African States have become OPCW Member States: Libya, Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Djibouti.

On 24 January 2006, the OPCW signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union Commission at the 2006 Khartoum Summit that provides welcome support in bringing the remaining eight African States into the Organisation and thus to be able to declare Africa a zone free of chemical weapons.

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997. Adherence to the Convention contributes to international peace and security and helps to prevent the terrorist acquisition or use of chemical weapons. Universal and effective implementation provides concrete benefits for all OPCW Member States.

The Convention's implementing agency, the OPCW, aims to achieve four principal objectives: to eliminate chemical weapons, to prevent their re-emergence and spread, to provide assistance and protection upon any State Party’s request in the event of the use, or threat of use, of chemical weapons, and to promote international cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry.

The OPCW urges all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the CWC to do so as soon as possible.

PR5 / 2006

Categories: Africa, Universality