OPCW Director-General Addresses Conference on Disarmament; CWC Seminar and Exhibition Held in Geneva

On 7 August 2007, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), addressed the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (CD). Attending the Conference as a special guest on the occasion of the events held at the Palais des Nations to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Director-General Pfirter recalled that the CWC, negotiated and concluded by the Conference, represented one of its most outstanding achievements that finally realised a long-sought, comprehensive and verifiable ban on the use of toxic weapons as instruments of war and terror.

Director-General Pfirter further presented the CD with a comprehensive overview of the disarmament and non-proliferation regime established by the Convention as well as the steady consolidation and effectiveness of the working of the OPCW over the first decade of its existence. He noted that the chemical weapons ban encompasses 98% of the world’s population and relevant chemical industry. He recounted the OPCW’s unique record in verifying chemical demilitarisation and non-proliferation, as well as in providing assistance and protection against chemical weapons and promoting peaceful chemistry. In highlighting the future challenges for the Organisation and its Member States, he stressed the obligation of possessor states to destroy all declared chemical weapons stockpiles within the CWC’s deadlines; the enactment and improvements in domestic laws to lend greater effectiveness to the implementation of the Convention and as an essential safeguard against acts of terrorism with toxic chemicals.

This CD session was held concurrently with an exhibition presenting the CWC’s implementation by the OPCW, which was opened by the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, H.E. Ambassador Sergei Ordzhonikidze, and Director-General Pfirter. In his opening address, Director-General Ordzhonikidze termed the CWC an essential element in securing international peace and security, and a singular example of the success of multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation.

Director-General Ordzhonikidze, and Director-General Pfirter, also met the press before co-chairing a seminar focussing on the CWC’s tenth anniversary.

At the seminar, the speakers presented the history of the Convention’s negotiations, its relevance today and its current implementation status, with special regard to the verification regime. The seminar was held at the Palais des Nations and was co-hosted by the OPCW, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and Pugwash International..

PR82 / 2007

Categories: 10th Anniversary, OPCW and the UN