Conference of the States Parties
Organisation of the Conference

The main business of the Conference will be conducted in the plenary meetings. Meetings of the Committee of the Whole will be additionally conducted if required.  

Provisional Agenda is provided in advance of each session. A daily Conference Journal will be posted throughout the Conference venue, and available on Catalyst.  

Morning sessions start at 10:00, and afternoon sessions start at 15:00, unless otherwise decided by the Conference.

Venue Configuration and Seating Arrangements

Seating arrangements will be posted in the Conference venue. 

Delegations of Signatory States, Non-Signatory States, representatives of international organisations and Non-Governmental organisations will also be provided designated seats.

Additional information on the seating arrangements in the plenary hall will be circulated to delegations prior to the Conference. 

Bilateral and Regional Group Meetings

Separate rooms, without interpretation facilities, will be available for bilateral meetings and meetings of the various regional groups.

Regional coordinators are requested to inform Conference Services of the times and locations of their regional group meetings. These will be listed in the Conference Journal.

Language Interpretation

Simultaneous interpretation into the six official languages of the OPCW (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) will be provided at plenary meetings and meetings of the Committee of the Whole.

Statements may be delivered in any language. When a statement is delivered in a language that is not an official language of the OPCW, an interpretation into one of the six official languages must be provided in advance to the Language Services Branch to facilitate technical and logistical arrangements.

Statements

Due to the limited time of the Conference, delegations are encouraged to provide written regional or national statements for publishing to Catalyst, and the OPCW public website if desired.

  • Written regional or national statements must be provided in a PDF file to PMO by 23 November 2023, 18:00 CET.

  • Written interventions in right-of-reply to any regional or national statement must be provided in a PDF file to PMO by 27 November 2023, 12:00 CET.

Accredited delegations can make a short oral statement under any agenda item. Such intervention should be short, highlighting the main points of the submitted written text and strictly related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. 

Statements provided in a language other than English are requested to provide an English-language courtesy translation to facilitate interpretation.

Paper Documents  

Paper documents will not be distributed in meeting rooms. Delegates are requested to make full use of Catalyst, and bring their own copies of paper documents as required. 

The operation of the Documentation Counter is limited to the documents that are not available on Catalyst. Full sets of printed documents of the Session will not be provided.