Weapons of Mass Destruction
Global Green USA Welcomes the Accession of the Dominican Republic to the International Chemical Weapons Convention
Calls for Remaining Eight Countries to Join the Arms Control Regime
Washington DC – April 1, 2009 – The United Nations implementing body for the 1997 international Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, announced today that the Dominican Republic has just acceded to the treaty regime and become the 187th State Party. Global Green USA, the US national affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross International, which has worked closely with US, Russian, and international authorities for over fifteen years to help eliminate chemical weapons globally, welcomes this major step forward in the Convention’s expansion and congratulates the Dominican Republic for its entry into the global disarmament regime.
Dr. Paul F. Walker, Director of Global Green USA’s Security and Sustainability Program, emphasized that “the Dominican Republic’s accession to the CWC is a major milestone in the universality of the international treaty regime and in banning a whole class of weapons of mass destruction across the globe.” He added: “With the recent accession of both Lebanon and Iraq in November and January, international pressure is now increasing on the eight remaining non-member countries – Angola, the Bahamas, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea, Somalia, and Syria – to join the international weapons ban.”
The Dominican Republic will officially become a State Party on April 26, 2009. To date six countries – Albania, India, Libya, South Korea, Russia, and the United States – have declared themselves as possessor states with arsenals holding over 78,600 (US) tons (71,316 metric tons) of chemical agents. Both Albania and South Korea have completed their destruction programs over the past 21 months, and India will finish in 2009. The United States has destroyed about 59% (18,500 tons) of its 31,500 declared tons, and Russia about 30% (13,000 tons) of its 44,000 declared tons of chemical agents. This leaves about 45,000 declared tons still to be destroyed globally.
“The OPCW and its Director-General, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, deserve much credit for bringing in forty countries to the CWC regime since Ambassador Pfirter’s arrival in 2002,” Walker added. “The OPCW now covers 98% of the world’s population and is on the verge of establishing a universal model for multilateral arms control, disarmament, and verification which will be useful in strengthening the nuclear and biological weapons control regimes as well.”
In joining the CWC, a State Party gains access to international trade and technical assistance in the chemical industry while, at the same time, supporting and participating in international inspections and restrictions on dangerous chemicals which could be used by states and non-state actors for terrorist and warfare purposes. The OPCW also helps State Parties to draft national legislation which aids in prosecuting criminal behavior with banned and restricted chemicals.
Walker pointed out that “in addition to reeling in the last eight non-member states, the other remaining challenge for the CWC and OPCW is completing the safe and verified destruction of declared stockpiles, especially in the U.S. and Russia, by the 2012 CWC deadline. The U.S. has announced that it will miss this deadline and Russia will also likely not finish its CW destruction program in the next three years, so the pressure is on both possessor states to accelerate their programs and on the G-8 Global Partnership to expand its related funding, including the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR or “Nunn-Lugar”) Program, as much as possible.”
About Global Green USA
Global Green USA, headquartered in Santa Monica, California, is the US affiliate of Green Cross International founded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993. The Security and Sustainability Program (known internationally as the “Legacy of the Cold War Program”), is managed from the Washington DC office and is an international partnership with Green Cross Switzerland and Green Cross Russia to facilitate the safe and timely elimination of weapons stockpiles and related systems globally and to promote international nonproliferation efforts. The Security and Sustainability Program has managed a dozen local outreach and information offices at formerly secret weapons stockpiles in Russia for over a decade now and has facilitated “Track II” diplomatic meetings in The Hague, Geneva, Moscow, Washington, and elsewhere to promote safe and sound elimination of weapons stockpiles.
For More Information: Marina Voronova, 202-222-0700, mvoronova@globalgreen.org
