The Retort: Evolving CBW disarmament challenges
Dr Brett Edwards (Lecturer, University of Bath) and Professor Lijun Shang (School of Human Sciences, Metropolitan University London) are collaborating on The Retort, a new series of educational video recordings via YouTube on chemical and biological weapons (CBW), their disarmament, and the evolving threats they still pose. The recordings aim to give the public a general understanding of issues ahead of the review conferences of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (28 November – 16 December 2022) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (May 2023). For each video recording, the intiative takers invite an expert in the field. So far, three …
Prelude to chemical weapons use?
Late yesterday evening, adviser to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Garashchenko tweeted that Russia was using chemical weapons (CW) against the defenders of the encircled Black Sea town of Mariupol. Another statement, reportedly from the Azov regiment – notorious for its neo-Nazi ideology – defending the city, mentioned respiratory failure and vestibulo-atactic syndrome. There are references to dissemination of a toxic substance by a drone, but also that the incident has had no disastrous health consequences. Clearly, whatever the incident may have been, it is not (yet) a situation whereby Russia has unleashed CW, as a British tabloid was …
OPCW: 26th Session of the Conference of the States Parties (CSP-26)
I am pleased to present here the summary of the annual OPCW Conference of States Parties, prepared by Leanne Quinn of the CWC Coalition. The Trench is a member of the CWC Coalition. Jean Pascal Summary Report by Leanne Quinn Program Assistant, Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition (Cross-posted from the CWC Coalition Conference summaries) During the annual Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), representatives from all the States Parties to the CWC convene in The Hague to oversee the implementation of the CWC, promote the goals and obligations of the treaty, and review treaty compliance, among …
Trying to picture a treaty for a Middle East Zone free of non-conventional weaponry
On 30 November, the Middle East Treaty Organisation (METO) – a coalition of civil society activists and practitioners – organised an informal virtual discussion round with Middle Eastern diplomats participating in the Second Session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction under the auspices of the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs. That session should have taken place last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced postponement of in-person UN diplomatic gatherings. Last Tuesday’s informal discussion forms part of METO’s efforts to draft and promote a treaty for …
Remarks at the CWCC webinar on ‘Reinforcing the Norm Against Chemical Weapons’
Remarks at the webinar Reinforcing the Norm Against Chemical Weapons: The April 20-22 Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, organised by the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition and the Arms Control Association, 10 May 2021 Director-General Arias, Ambassador Helfand, Ambassador Lingner, Participants, I am pleased to join this webinar of the global non-governmental platform, the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition (CWCC). As a CWCC member from the start, I wish to express my gratitude to Paul Walker, who has been the engine behind the initiative for as long as it has existed, and to the states parties to …
Before the 1925 Geneva Protocol: First (mis)steps to constraining chemical weapons
17 June is the anniversary of the signing in 1925 of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, more commonly known as the Geneva Protocol after the place where it was negotiated. In a blog posting six years ago, I discussed how the negotiators of the Geneva Protocol stumbled across the dual-use dilemma when trying to control toxic chemicals so that belligerents would not be able to use them again as weapons of war. However, in the absence of a formal international treaty outlawing the …
Sanctioning Syria: An Analysis of the OPCW Vote
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) completed its 25th session of the Conference of the States Parties (CSP) on 22 April, the 106th anniversary of the first massive use of chlorine as a warfare agent in the First World War. Due to the sanitary restrictions to contain the global coronavirus pandemic, the OPCW spread the CSP-25 over two sittings. The first one took place on 30 November and 1 December 2020. Its primary objective was the adoption of the work programme and budget for 2021, which the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) could not …
Regional security and the Chemical Weapons Convention: Insights for the Middle East (Part 2)
In November 2019, the first annual meeting exploring the possibility of creating a zone exempt of non-conventional weaponry in the Middle East took place. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the second meeting in 2020. Conditions permitting, the session is now scheduled for this autumn. Meanwhile, the conference has organised two informal workshops, the second one of which was held virtually on 23-25 February. Entitled ‘Good Practices and Lessons Learned with respect to the implementation of Treaties establishing Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones’, the workshop’s third session looked at the core obligations governing chemical and biological weapons (CBW). It aimed to glean …
Regional security and the Chemical Weapons Convention: Insights for the Middle East (Part 1)
In November 2019, the first annual meeting exploring the possibility of creating a zone exempt of non-conventional weaponry in the Middle East took place. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the second meeting in 2020. Conditions permitting, the session is now scheduled for this autumn. Meanwhile, the conference has organised two informal workshops, the second one of which was held virtually on 23-25 February. Entitled ‘Good Practices and Lessons Learned with respect to the implementation of Treaties establishing Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones’, the workshop’s third session looked at the core obligations governing chemical and biological weapons (CBW). It aimed to glean …
A Middle East Zone Free from Non-conventional Weapons (4)
Part 4: Clear legal definitions at the core of the future treaty This article is the fourth in a series of blog postings exploring the opportunities and challenges facing a new series of conferences at the United Nations in New York to eliminate non-conventional arms – essentially nuclear weapons, and to a lesser extent chemical and biological weapons (CBW) – from the military arsenals in the Middle East. Why legal definitions matter By adopting Decision 73/546 on 22 December 2018, the UN General Assembly tasked the newly established conference with ‘elaborating a legally binding treaty establishing a Middle East …