OPCW Completes 1,000 Inspections of Chemical Industry Sites

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has completed its 1,000th chemical industry inspection, a milestone in the on-site verification of non-proliferation.

The OPCW implements the Chemical Weapons Convention, banning the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. States that are party to the Convention are obligated to declare any chemical weapons stockpiles and chemical weapons production capacity in full, as well as ensuring that the weapons and production capacity are eliminated under international monitoring and within agreed timelines. In addition, certain types of industrial facilities and chemical production activity must be declared.

The 178 OPCW Member States and global chemical industry work in partnership to prevent the spread of chemical weapons by cooperating with on-site inspections of industrial facilities and monitoring the transfer of certain chemicals. The OPCW’s Technical Secretariat dispatches inspection missions around the world to verify on-site compliance with the Convention.

When the Convention entered into force in 1997, the OPCW began inspections of industrial facilities. Over 5,000 sites around the world may be inspected by the OPCW. Over 98% of the relevant global chemical industry falls within the jurisdiction of the treaty.

In the past nine years, OPCW inspectors have monitored activity at both military and industrial sites in 74 countries. Inspections are undertaken regularly at chemical weapons storage facilities, at inactivated chemical weapons factories, and at chemical industrial facilities. Whenever and wherever chemical weapons are destroyed, OPCW inspectors are present to verify irreversible destruction. In the past nine years, over 2,300 inspections have been carried out at more than 700 sites, amounting to over 130,000 inspector-days.

PR18 / 2006

Categories: Non-proliferation of chemical weapons