Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is the first multilateral instrument that bans an entire category of weapons of mass destruction, i.e. chemical weapons and establishes a strict and universally applied international control mechanism. The Convention regulates the production, processing and consumption of chemicals that possess properties of chemical warfare agents or can be converted into or used to produce chemical weapons agents. Most of the latter chemicals are "dual-use", meaning that they also have legitimate commercial uses. The Convention also regulates the production and transfer of riot-control agents and requires States Parties to declare the possession and transfer of such agents on an annual basis. States Parties to the Convention are required to make regular declarations on specified military and industrial activities in the chemical field, including the declaration of riot control agents. Declarations are verified through on-site inspections by inspection teams operating from the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague , which administers the implementation of the Convention.

South Africa signed the Convention on 14 January 1993 in Paris, one of the first countries to do so. The signing of the Convention served as a catalyst for the promulgation of enabling legislation for all South Africa 's international non-proliferation and disarmament obligations. The Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act established a National Authority for the implementation of the Convention - the Council for Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Convention and its annexes were published as regulations under the Act. The Council's Chemical Weapons Working Group, the first sub-committee established under the Council advises both the Council and South African delegations to the OPCW on the implementation of the Convention. The South African Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands is South Africa 's Permanent Representative to the OPCW.

South Africa hosted the very successful first African Regional Seminar on National Implementation of the Convention in Pretoria during September 1994. The aim of the Seminar was to provide African Signatories of the CWC as well as African States which have not signed the Convention with a forum for an informal exchange of views on the preparations for entry into force of the Convention and to gain a better understanding of the tasks which will be required for implementation at the national level. South Africa has since this Seminar also actively participated in the Second, Third and Fourth African Regional Seminars in Yaoundé
(Cameroon), Yamoussoukro (Côte d'Ivoire) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) .

South Africa was an active participant in the Preparatory Commission (PrepCom) for the establishment of the OPCW since it establishment in February 1993. The purpose of the PrepCom was, inter alia, to e stablish the new international Organisation (OPCW); developing detailed regulations and verification procedures; resolving many detailed provisions for the operation of the Convention; and assisting signatory States in their preparations to ratify the Convention. South Africa chaired the PrepCom for the period August 1995 to February 1996. During this time the South African Ambassador in The Hague to the Netherlands , the late Dr Zac de Beer, led delegations to Washington and Moscow to encourage the US and the Russian Federation as the largest declared possessors of chemical weapons to ratify the Convention expeditiously.

On 13 September 1995 South Africa became the 37 th State to ratify the Convention, thereby becoming a State Party. Following the deposit of the 65 th instrument of ratification by Hungary on 31 October 1996, the Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997, and is subsequently legally enforced in South Africa by the Non-Proliferation Council which acts as South Africa 's National Authority in terms of the Non-Proliferation Act.

Due to the size of its chemical industry, South Africa remains one of nine African countries to be a member of the Executive Council of the OPCW. This Council, which in nature is similar to the IAEA Board of Governors, is the executive organ of the OPCW and is established to promote the effective implementation of, and compliance with, the Convention.

The entry into force of the Convention in practice means that South Africa is required to declare its production, stockpiling and transfer of all chemicals listed in the Annex to the Convention, including riot-control agents. All industries, including the defence related industries, engaged in chemical production or the use of scheduled chemicals are required to register with the Non-Proliferation Council and to declare their production, use and export of such chemicals. The Council has submitted several declarations to the OPCW and several inspections have been conducted by OPCW inspectors. South Africa also declared to the OPCW that it had destroyed all munitions (grenades, artillery rounds, and mortar shells) filled with teargas by the apartheid era government prior to the entry into force of the Convention.

The international inspectors from the OPCW conduct both routine and challenge inspections in their quest to verify declarations and allegations made to the OPCW against any State Party. The OPCW has already conducted several routine inspections in South Africa and the inspection reports have all given South Africa a clean bill of health.