Issued by: The Department of Foreign Affairs
On 13 September 1995, South Africa ratified the Convention on the Prohibition, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and On Their Destruction, or as it is commonly known, the "Chemical Weapons Convention".
The ratification again underlines the Government of National Unity's commitment to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (ie nuclear, chemical, biological weapons and their means of delivery).
South Africa is the thirty seventh (37th) State Party to ratify the Convention.
The Chemical Weapons Convention is a global disarmament agreement that, when it enters into force, will ban the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons. It also provides for the destruction of existing chemical weapon stockpiles and related facilities within a specific time frame.
The Convention is unprecedented in being the first multilateral disarmament agreement to provide for the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction under universally applied international control.
The Convention has been signed by 159 states and the process of ratification is actively underway, with 37 ratifications submitted to date. The Convention will enter in force and becomes legally binding six months after 65 states deposit their instruments of ratification with the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Implementation of the Convention will be supervised by a new international organisation, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which will be established in The Hague, Netherlands.
A Preparatory Commission (PrepCom), composed of the Convention's 159 signatory states, has been at work in The Hague since January 1993 preparing for the establishment of the OPCW. The OPCW will be established upon entry into force of the Convention which is expected towards the end of 1996.
South Africa has played an active role in the PrepCom of the Convention. It also in late 1994 hosted the first African seminar on the implementation of the CWC. South Africa was nominated by the Africa Group in The Hague to chair the Preparatory Commission which is to meet from August 1995 to January 1996. South Africa's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Dr Zach De Beer, was elected chair- person of the Preparatory Commission on 8 August 1995, in his capacity as Chairperson of the Africa Group.
Ambassador de Beer leads an OPCW delegation to the United States from 18-22 September and to the Russian Federation in October from 10 to 13 October 1995 to urge these two countries to consider ratification of the Convention. Ratification by these countries, the major possessors of chemical weapons, is important because many states look to them to take the lead before depositing their own instruments of ratification.
Legislation to enable the implementation of the Convention in South Africa was promulgated under the nonproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act (No 87 of 1993).
This Act addresses nuclear, biological, chemical and missile technologies, equipment and material which could be used in the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction.
The CWC calls for the establishment of a National Authority in each country, to implement its provisions within Member States. The Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was established under the abovementioned Act, serves as South Africa's National Authority for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Given the numerous industrial chemical plants and military installations in the world and the relative simplicity of producing chemical warfare agents, the verification provisions of the Convention are far-reaching and depend on a combination of reporting requirements, routine on-site inspections of declared sites and short-notice challenge inspections.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
PRETORIA 22 SEPTEMBER 1995