Each country that belongs to the OPCW must:

• destroy all chemical weapons it owns or possesses;
• destroy all chemical weapons it may have abandoned in another country; and,
• destroy facilities it owns or possesses which were involved in the production of chemical weapons.

Six countries have informed the OPCW that they have chemical weapons, amounting to over 70,000 metric tonnes of toxic agents in 8.6 million munitions and containers. Four countries have begun to destroy their weapons under the terms of the Convention. The biggest arsenals that must be destroyed are in Russia and the United States. The Convention requires member countries to destroy their chemical weapons within 10 years after the CWC entered into force—by 2007. However, it is possible to request an extension of this destruction deadline by up to five years, until 2012. The approval of the other OPCW member countries is necessary for an exceptional extension of the destruction timeline.

Member countries cannot destroy chemical weapons in any way that they like. The Convention stipulates that the destruction process cannot harm people or the environment. Accordingly, the six countries that possess chemical weapons are required to use approved technologies for their destruction. The OPCW continuously monitors the destruction of chemical weapons at designated chemical weapons destruction facilities.

The OPCW also regularly inspects all former chemical weapons production facilities declared to it by its member countries, in order to make certain that they are all shut down and destroyed, or converted for peaceful purposes. Over two thirds of these facilities have been either completely destroyed or converted so far. The OPCW is overseeing the destruction/conversion of the remaining facilities.

The OPCW also monitors the destruction of old chemical weapons or chemical weapons that were abandoned by one country on the territory of another. Under the Convention, member countries must declare such weapons to the OPCW and undertake to destroy them.