Foundation Course for Chemical Weapons Convention National Authorities Commences in the United Kingdom

A nine-day Foundation Course for National Authorities involved in the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is being held from 17 to 26 January 2006 at the Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, Swindon, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The course is organised by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), together with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom.

The objective of the course is to help States Parties to comply with the obligations they have assumed under the Convention, such as the passage of the necessary national legislation, as well as to support them in swiftly and effectively fulfilling the objectives of the Action Plan on National Implementation.

Participants from seventeen National Authorities are attending the course. Iraq , whose Government has informed the OPCW of its intention to accede to the CWC, has also dispatched two representatives to participate in the course. The course's curriculum covers those areas of implementation relevant to National Authority personnel responsible for ensuring the full and effective application of the CWC at the national level.

In his opening address to the participants, Mr Brian Hawtin, Deputy Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat, expressed the sincere gratitude of the Organisation to the Government of the United Kingdom for hosting this course and for its financial contribution and logistical and organisational arrangements made in support of the course's participants.

Mr Hawtin stressed that it is imperative for States Parties that have yet to fulfil their national implementation obligations to do so in a timely manner, since all States Parties, in concert with the international community, are interested in strengthening the CWC's disarmament and non-proliferation regime. Progress in national implementation benefits the chemical weapons ban, as well as other multilateral efforts in disarmament, non-proliferation, security and international cooperation in the promotion of the peaceful uses of science. Mr Hawtin also indicated that full national implementation of the Convention also contributes to Member States' compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1540, which supports the national implementation of the CWC for by requiring all UN Member States to prevent both the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and non-state actors' access to these weapons, including chemical weapons, while providing support to States that lack the necessary legal and regulatory infrastructure, implementation experience and/or resources.

PR1 / 2006

Categories: National implementation