The Chemical Weapons Convention, introduced in 1992, prohibits the development, production, and use of chemical weapons. 183 of the 195 UN member states have signed and ratified the convention. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons oversees implementation and progress. Three classes of chemical weapons are recognized.
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention is a ban on chemical weapons that was introduced at the United Nations in 1992 by the Conference on Disarmament and opened for signature in early 1993. To date, 183 of the 195 member states recognized by the UN have signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and five others have signed, but not yet ratified. The objective of this convention is to destroy all stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world and to prevent the use of these weapons by all signatories.
This convention is a consequence of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare. In the 1960s, a growing interest in disarmament led to the creation of a disarmament committee, focused on creating treaties that UN members could sign. This particular treaty went into effect in 1997, with a goal of destroying all stockpiles and facilities by 2007; this goal has not been achieved, but significant progress has been made.
Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, signatories may not develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons. They are obligated to destroy all stockpiles of chemical weapons, along with the facilities used to produce them; these structures can also be converted to demonstrably civilian use. Signatories are also responsible for destroying any chemical weapons they may have left behind in other nations.
The Convention is implemented by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an independent international agency based in The Hague. This organization periodically surveys nations to judge their progress, with particular attention to the United States, Russia, Albania, Libya and India, all nations with permitted stockpiles of chemical weapons when they ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. As of 2008, only Albania had destroyed all of its stockpiles.
The Chemical Weapons Convention also recognizes three different classes of chemical weapons. Schedule I weapons are weapons that have only a malign military use, such as nerve agents. Schedule II chemicals have limited commercial use, so are not completely banned, although access is controlled. Schedule III chemicals are those that can be used as chemical weapons, but also have a large number of commercial and civilian uses; inventories of these materials are monitored to ensure that their uses are legitimate.
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