Chemical Weapons Convention

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an international arms-control and non-proliferation agreement that prohibits enterprises and private persons to develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone.

  • Opdateret 16. oktober 2023

International Monitoring Organ

The international organisation, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), is monitoring and controlling that chemicals covered by the Convention are only used for purposes not prohibited under the Convention.

The OPCW cooperates with the national authorities in the countries that have acceded to the Convention. In Denmark the Danish Business Authority under the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs has been designated as National Authority.

The Obligations of Companies 

Companies that produce, develop, consume, process, import or export scheduled chemicals are obliged to;  

  • inform the Danish Business Authority about their activities with the chemicals to be included in annual declarations which the Agency has to submit to the OPCW, one covering past activities in the preceding year and one covering anticipated activities in the coming year;
  • accept routine inspections which are carried out by inspectors from the OPCW in order to verify the information contained in the declarations.

According to the Convention, States Parties are obliged to submit to the OPCW declarations on activities relevant to chemical weapons in order to ensure that the scheduled chemicals and their precursors are only developed, produced, otherwise acquired, stockpiled, transferred or used for peaceful purposes.

Obligation to inform the authorities

Thus, companies, institutions etc. which produce, consume, process, import or export chemicals are obliged to provide information to the Danish Business Authority. The Authority will submit this information to the OPCW in the form of declarations.

Different types of declarations

Under the Convention there are 2 main types of declarations: initial and annual. Again, for annual declarations there are 2 types: declaration on activities in the previous calendar year and declaration on anticipated activities in the coming calendar year.

Following the entry into force of the Convention, Denmark and the other States Parties submitted to the OPCW initial declarations concerning possession of chemical weapons, facilities for the production of chemical weapons and other relevant chemical industry activities.

Verification and control

What makes the Chemical Weapons Convention unique among arms-control and non-proliferation treaties is its extensive and strict verification and control regime.

The most important element in the control of the observance of the Convention is international inspections of chemical facilities that are affected by the Convention and therefore declarable under the Convention. 

Forms of inspection  

Routine inspections whose purpose is to verify the information contained in the declarations. Not all declarable facilities are inspectable as the thresholds for inspections are approximately ten times higher than those for declarations;
So-called challenge inspections. Each State Party has the right to request on the territory of another State Party for the purpose of clarifying and resolving any questions concerning possible non-compliance with the provisions of the Convention.

How?

The inspections are carried out by inspectors from the OPCW. The inspectors are escorted by representatives of the National Authority, i.e. the Danish Business Authority.

OPCW