Industrial Inspection Training Course in Spiez, Switzerland Concludes

From 19 to 23 March 2007, the National Authority of Switzerland, represented by the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, and the Spiez Laboratory hosted an industrial verification training course. The course provided twelve newly recruited inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) an opportunity to become familiar with the procedures employed when inspecting a chemical industry facility. The OPCW trainees included specialists in chemical production technology, analytical chemistry and health and safety.

On behalf of the OPCW, OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, expressed his gratitude to the Swiss Confederation for its long-standing and unwavering support for a universal ban on chemical weapons. He recalled that the Spiez Laboratory has a long tradition in laboratory, verification and civil defense training. The unstinting effort made by the Spiez Laboratory bolsters both Member States’ and the OPCW Inspectorate’s ability to verify compliance with the chemical weapons ban. Director-General Pfirter stressed that the inspectors’ ability to verify effectively is a key component in the OPCW’s watchdog role and serves to deter attempts to breach the ban.

During the industrial inspection training, the trainee inspectors exercised the verification procedures they would employ in a routine, on-site inspection. Currently, almost 5,000 industrial plant sites located around the world can be inspected by OPCW inspectors. The OPCW will conduct 200 industrial inspections, in addition to 187 projected missions to verify the storage and elimination of chemical weapons and their production facilities.

PR21 / 2007

Categories: Inspectorate