The Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) organised the Basic Course for the Personnel of National Authorities Involved in the Implementation of Chemical Weapons Convention at the OPCW Headquarters, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1 – 4 November 2011. The course was attended by 23 participants, representing 21 States Parties.*
The programme of the Basic Course covered a variety of subjects. Among these were the Chemical Weapons Convention, an overview of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the role of National Authority, the rights and obligations of States Parties under the CWC, the verification and transfers regimes under the Convention, and an introduction to the Electronic Declaration Tool for National Authorities (EDNA) version 2.1.
Participants were also briefed on the programmes of the International Cooperation and Assistance Division, namely assistance and protection programmes, international co-operation in the field of chemistry, and implementation support programmes of the Technical Secretariat. Finally, the course included a series of exercises on the preparation of declarations under Article VI of the CWC which created the necessary balance between the theoretical and practical aspects of the course.
The basic course is a key element in the programme offered to the States Parties by the Technical Secretariat in order to assist and prepare National Authorities to effectively implement the Chemical Weapons Convention.
* Belarus, Bhutan, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Macedonia, Pakistan, Palau, Poland, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uruguay, UAE.