A 4-day Advanced Training Course for Personnel from National Authorities in Asia took place in Singapore from 1 to 4 June 2010. A total of 23 participants from 21 States Parties in the Asia-Pacific region participated in the training.
The course was organised by the OPCW in cooperation with Singapore Customs, which is the National Authority for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and was the first of its kind conducted on a regional basis. The course provided training to personnel with experience of working in National Authorities and dealing in particular with Article VI declarations and inspection-related issues.
The course included a number of practical exercises and scenario discussions for the collection of relevant information in preparing Article VI declarations; the application of thresholds in the Verification Annex of the CWC and subsequent decisions of the policy making organs of the OPCW to make accurate Article VI declarations; the availability of different tools that the National Authorities could use to widen the scope of their efforts to collect relevant data at a national level; and the monitoring and collection of data for the import-export of scheduled chemicals.
An important element of the course was to provide practical training through a mock inspection exercise, including a detailed preparatory session devoted to the conduct of OPCW inspections. The mock inspection was designed to offer more information to the participants on the inspection procedures adopted by the OPCW inspectors during Article VI inspections and the role of national escorts in facilitating the smooth conduct of OPCW inspections.
Participants also shared experiences about the role played by the National Authorities in performing specific tasks, including outreach to industry to create awareness about the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention, on-going contact with facilities to be inspected by the OPCW, and other administrative and logistic arrangements to be made for OPCW inspections.
OPCW NEWS 15/2010 THE HAGUE, 9 JUNE 2010