Vanuatu Joins the Chemical Weapons Convention

The Republic of Vanuatu deposited its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 16 September 2005. Vanuatu will become a State Party to the Convention on 16 October 2005, thirty days after the deposit of its instrument of accession.

Vanuatu’s accession brings the total number of Member States of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to 174. OPCW membership has now doubled since the Entry into Force of the Convention on 29 April 1997, when there were 87 States Parties.

Also as a result of Vanuatu’s accession, all of the countries within the Pacific Islands Forum will have become OPCW Member States, bringing universal membership in the Asia-Pacific region tangibly closer.

Vanuatu’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention is a further confirmation of the universal validity of this multilateral instrument, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, use or transfer of chemical weapons, and enhances collective security through the verified elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.

By implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention effectively and in full, Vanuatu will contribute both to strengthening the global chemical weapons ban, as well as the international community’s efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. As a Member State, it will also be entitled to benefit from the OPCW’s international cooperation and assistance programmes.

The Chemical Weapons Convention's implementing agency—the OPCW—is mandated to verify the elimination of chemical weapons and to prevent their re-emergence and their proliferation, while providing international assistance and protection in the event of the use, or threat of use, of chemical weapons, as well as to promote international cooperation in the peaceful uses of chemistry. To achieve an effective, global ban on chemical weapons, the OPCW strives to achieve universal adherence to the Convention. Currently, 12 States have signed, but have not yet ratified this treaty, while a further 8 States have neither signed nor ratified the Convention.

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Categories: Asia, Universality