‘Focus is on preventing chemical weapons re-emergence’

Sunday Mail Reporter

ZIMBABWE has immensely benefited from capacity-building programmes conducted by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Africa, which have helped the country advance its hazardous chemicals protocols.

This was said by Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri during the 21st OPCW regional meeting of national authorities of State parties in Africa to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) held in Harare last week.

In a speech read on her behalf by Permanent Secretary Mr Aaron Nhepera, Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said: “In May 2022, Zimbabwe, in conjunction with the OPCW, hosted the advanced chemical safety and security workshop for African member states and over the years, many Zimbabweans have benefitted immensely from capacity building programmes conducted by the OPCW here in Africa and elsewhere.”

The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Defence and the OPCW, an intergovernmental organisation responsible for implementation of the CWC, a multilateral treaty that prohibits proliferation of chemical weapons and lobbies for their destruction.

Last week’s meeting sought to assess Africa’s implementation of the convention.

Minister Muchinguri-Kashiri said the meeting was significantly boosted by the United States’ recent announcement that the country was destroying its entire 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,” she said.

“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.”

The convention — which came into force on April 29, 1997 — seeks 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.

More than 190 countries have acceded to the convention, while only Israel, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan have not.

OPCW’s senior coordination and planning officer (implementation and support branch) Mr Solomon Abebe Haile called on all countries to sign the convention.

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

“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.”