The Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros Ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention

The Union of the Comoros deposited its instrument of ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 18 August 2006. Thirty days after that date, on 17 September 2006, the Comoros will become the 179th State Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Comoros’ ratification of the Convention confirms the global validity of this multilateral instrument, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, use or transfer of chemical weapons, and promotes international security through the verified elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.

The Convention now covers 98% of the global population. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) implements the Chemical Weapons Convention. To ensure a complete, global ban on these weapons, the OPCW is pursuing an Action Plan to acquire every State’s membership in the Organisation by 2007. Since the Action Plan was launched in October 2003, nine African States have become OPCW Member States: Libya, Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Liberia and the Comoros. With the Comoros’ ratification of the Convention, 47 of the 53 African States are OPCW Member States.

The goal of achieving the Convention’s universal and effective application in Africa is also being pursued through intensified cooperation between the OPCW and the African Union. At the 2006 African Union Summit, held in Khartoum, the Sudan, the African Union Commission and the OPCW Technical Secretariat signed a Memorandum of Understanding whose key objectives include establishing a chemical weapons-free zone in Africa.

As an OPCW Member State, the Comoros will benefit from the OPCW’s international cooperation and assistance programmes that aim to enhance the national capacity to implement the Convention and to engage in the peaceful uses of chemistry.

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997. Adherence to the Convention contributes to global peace and security by verifiably eliminating an entire category of weapons of mass destruction within agreed timelines. The Convention’s universal and effective implementation provides concrete benefits for all OPCW Member States. The Convention's implementing agency, the OPCW, aims to achieve four principal objectives: to eliminate chemical weapons; to prevent their re-emergence and spread; to provide assistance and protection upon any State Party’s request in the event of the use, or threat of use, of chemical weapons; and to promote international cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry.

The OPCW urges the remaining seven Signatory States that have not yet ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and the remaining nine States that have not acceded to the treaty to do so as soon as possible.

PR49 / 2006

Categories: Africa, Universality