Africa takes stock of chemical weapons

Farirai Machivenyika

Senior Reporter

The 21st Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) regional meeting of national authorities of State Parties in Africa to the Chemical Weapons Convention began yesterday with Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri hailing the hosting of the event in Harare as a sign of the strong relations between Zimbabwe and the OPCW.

The purpose of the meeting is to assess Africa’s implementation of the convention to identify priorities as well as come up with appropriate responses to issues observed.

It is a build up to the annual meeting of national authorities from around the world traditionally held during the last quarter of the year at the OPCW Headquarters at The Hague, the Netherlands.

Due to the success of the Government’s engagement and re-engagement efforts, the country has since the coming in of the Second Republic hosted numerous international meetings as the world warms up to Zimbabwe’s efforts to re-integrate into the global family of nations.

“The hosting of the meeting here in Harare is yet another demonstration of the strong relations between Zimbabwe and the OPCW. In May 2022, Zimbabwe, in conjunction with the OPCW hosted the advanced chemical safety and security workshop for African member states while over the years, many Zimbabweans have benefited immensely from capacity building programmes conducted by the OPCW here in Africa and elsewhere,” she said in a speech read on her behalf the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr Aaron Nhepera.

The Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into force on April 29, 1997 aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by states that have acceded to the convention.

So far 193 countries have acceded to the convention with only Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan missing.

States parties are obligated to take necessary steps to enforce the convention at domestic level, that is to make sure that no private persons or companies make these weapons or their ingredients on their soil.

Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said since coming into force, the Chemical Weapons Convention had proved to be one of the most successful disarmament treaties with 193 States having committed to the convention.

“The meeting is coming against the backdrop where the United States of America has announced the destruction of all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons under the supervision of the OPCW.

“The development is a major milestone as it marks the destruction of the last known stockpiles of chemical weapons by a possessor State. Having reached this important milestone, the major focus is now on preventing the re-emergence of chemical weapons.

“Concerted efforts by State parties should therefore, now be focused on ensuring that non-state actors do not have the means to undertake activities prohibited by the Convention,” Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri added.

In his remarks, Mr Solomon Abebe Haile, OPCW’s Senior Coordination and Planning Officer Implementation and Support Branch said their target was to have all countries sign up to the convention.

“The protection that CWC provides to people, their infrastructure and environment currently covers 193 countries across the world or 98 per cent of the world’s population.

“In addition to the massive achievement, these figures speak to the unfinished business of implementing the CWC or achieving the full universality of the convention. Four countries have yet to join the Convention,” he said.

The four countries are Israel, Egypt, South Sudan and North Korea.