On April 8 the Ambassador from Iran delivered his nation’s statement during the general debate. We were disappointed because at the time a transcript of the statement was not provided, and then were pleasantly surprised on April 9 when a copy was passed out to all the delegates. Nonetheless I remained skeptical that an electronic version would be listed with the others on the OPCW Second RevCon website, and as such promised that when I got back to the U.S. I would scan and post the Iran Statement for anyone interested.

Well, I’m back now and here is the National Statement of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Review Conference.

Today the Committee of the Whole meets again, this time spending the morning on:

“implementation of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention relating to economic and technological development”

and the afternoon talking about:

“implementation of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention relating to Articles XII to XV and final clauses.”

It appears that today’s negotiations continued into the evening. Richard Guthrie who still is in The Hague at the Conference sent this informal update on the rather slow progress the Commitee of the Whole has been making.

“This is an informal update and the outline provided here will be filled in with more details tomorrow in the regular report.

After a mammoth effort, the paragraph-by-paragraph read through of the ‘informal text’ was completed Monday night.

The consultations finished at 8.40pm local time with a new version of ‘CRP.1’ that now contains 40 pages of draft declaration compared with 29 just prior to the opening of the Review Conference.

There are many, many instances of bracketed text and highlighted text indicating further discussion may be needed and most paragraphs contain at least one bracket or one highlight.

It is not clear what procedure will be carried out tomorrow for the ‘second reading’ of the text. This will probably be decided at the General Committee meeting that is scheduled for 9.30 Tuesday morning.”

Today the Commitee of the Whole begins. This is where the real business of the Review Conference will take place – too bad NGO observers are not allowed. The tentative programme of work says that the morning session will discuss:

“the role of the Chemical Weapons Convention in enhancing international peace and security and in achieving the objectives as set forth in the preamble of the Convention; ensuring the universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention; implementation of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention relating to general obligations and declarations related thereto.”

And the afternoon session will focus on:

“implementation of the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention relating to destruction of chemical weapons and destruction or conversion of chemical weapons production facilities; verification activities of the OPCW; activities not prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention.”

Here is a (not so brief) overview of the Open Forum held at OPCW headquarters yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon was the Open Forum, where other stakeholders in the CWC, such as industry, academia and NGOs were able to present their views and ideas on moving the Convention forward. The forum was chaired by Dr. Ralf Trapp and began with a brief welcome from Director General Rogelio Pfirter. The DG thanked us for coming and expressed his appreciation for the participation of industry, academia and NGOs in the RevCon. The OPCW, the states parties and the other stakeholders all need to work together for the CWC and continue to be “dedicated to peace and security and the improvement of the human condition.”
Next United Kingdom Ambassador Lyn Parker, Chair of the Open-Ended Working Group for the preparation for the Second Review Conference said a few words. He outlined the extensive preparations for the conference and is looking forward to the upcoming discussions between the states parties, but also attached importance input from us.
The first panel of the meeting focused on “creating a more secure world through the Chemical Weapons Convention” and Daniel Feakes of the Harvard Sussex Program was the first speaker. Continue reading →

Richard Guthrie has posted his fourth report from the Second Review Conference, this one on “The Third Day: General Debate and Open Forum.”

This morning the National Statements concluded, and unfortunately with them the NGO and other observers allowance at the meeting. Tomorrow the Commitee of the Whole begins its deliberations behind closed doors.

The afternoon Open Forum was a welcome role reversal from the meetings earlier in the week. At the World Forum the NGOs, academia, and industry observers were at the very back of the room, whereas at the open forum we occupied the first 2 rows. There was a full house at the meeting with delages from several nations piled in at the back of the room. I will provide a bit of an overview of the procedings tomorrow morning.

Written transcripts of the Iranian statement were not provided to the delegates (not a big shock) yesterday during their address, but surprisingly today copies were passed out. If the statement does not become one of those available on the 2nd RevCon website, I will scan it and post it as soon as I get home. It was also the subject of a small middle eastern news article.

Two of the more interesting statements this morning were from Albania and LIbya. Albania is the only CW possesor state to have fully destroyed all of its CW stockpiles, and missed the original April 2007 deadline by only a few weeks. The Albanian representative gave credit to all of the states parties who made it possible for the destruction to be completed. Albania has proved that the goals of the CWC are acheivable, and as such called for the rest of the possesor states to work to meet the 2012 deadline. However, Albania was quick to point out that in their experience, hurdles in the destruction process that are impossible to predict will be encountered and could therefore affect the overall timeline. Albania urged states to keep the OPCW informed and to maintain full transparency as destruction moves forward.

Libya, one of the remaining CW possessor states also spoke this morning. Libya asserted that they are doing their utmost to implement the CWC. They have declared their stockpiles and had OPCW inspections. According to the Libyan representative they have destroyed 100% of their schedule 3 chemicals, 39% of schedule 2 chemicals, and are prepared to fully cooperate with the OPCW and are committed to meeting the 2012 deadline for full destruction (However, Libya has not begun to destroy its Schedule 1 Chemical Weapons yet). Libya did have harsh words for Israel and called on them to adhere to the CWC as their continued non-involvement has serious negative consequences for the implementation of the convention.

We also heard statements from India, Columbia, Nigeria, Thailand, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Zambia, Uganda, Belarus, Morocco, Hong Kong SAR and Argentina.

Here is Richard Guthrie’s third report of the week. It is very descriptively titled “The Second Day of the Conference: Further General Debate.”

And today even further general debate will encompass the morning, but should be finished before the afternoon Open Forum.

Also, OPCW has posted the opening statement of Director General Rogelio Pfirter delivered April 7. There is a continually growing list of National Statements available and I will be providing links in the posts below as more are added.

And finally, there is one interesting new news article this morning:

• Boost for chemical weapons treaty – Business Day, Hopewell Radebe, April 9, 2008.