OPCW Director-General Opens Chemical Weapons Convention Workshop in Algeria

The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, and H.E. Mr. Mourad Medelci, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria inaugurated the Workshop on the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) that was held in Algiers, Algeria on 18 and 19 June 2007. The workshop had a special significance because of the opportunity to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention.

The main objectives of the workshop, which was hosted by the Government of Algeria and supported by the European Union’s Joint Action with the OPCW, were to promote universal adherence to the CWC in Africa and to encourage its full and effective implementation in that region.

These objectives are consistent with various decisions on the effective implementation of the Convention and on universality that have been adopted by the States Parties to the Convention and by the African Union, which has reiterated “the call to achieve universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention in Africa.”

In his address to the workshop, Director-General Pfirter thanked the Government of Algeria and OPCW’s partners in the region, the African Union and the European Union for their support of the Workshop and the Convention’s full and effective implementation. He underscored the need to acquire the membership of every State in Africa and throughout the world to promote the cause of peace and security.

Foreign Minister Medelci expressed Algeria’s strong commitment to the goals of the Convention and to the promotion of peace and security in the world. He underlined that the Workshop was one of the practical manifestations of this support.

During the course of the workshop, Director-General Pfirter met the representatives of four African States that are taking part in the workshop and are preparing to join the CWC: Angola, Congo, Egypt and Guinea-Bissau. He encouraged these States to join the Convention as soon as possible, offering the Organisation’s fullest support in that process.

In addition to the Representatives of States not yet Parties from the African region, the workshop was attended by a large number of States Parties from Africa and elsewhere. Experts and representatives from the European Union, the League of Arab States, the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs and the 1540 Committee also attended the workshop.

The workshop provided expert-level presentations on the CWC’s legal, administrative and enforcement mechanisms, as well as on the benefits to be derived from OPCW membership through the programmes for protection and assistance against and for the enhancement of international cooperation programmes to foster the peaceful uses of chemistry in all African States.

At present, 48 African countries have joined the Convention and are Member States of the OPCW.

PR68 / 2007

Categories: Universality