Officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, the CWC prohibits the production, possession, and use of chemical weapons for non-peaceful purposes. It does not cover biological weapons, and unlike the BWC, it includes verification measures. The Chemical Weapons Convention was signed on January 13, 1993 in Paris and entered into force on April 29, 1997.
Chemical
Weapons Convention (text)
As of March 2006:
Number of
State Parties: 178
Number of
Signatories (unratified): 8
Number of Non-Signatory States: 8
Chemical Weapons Convention
(website)
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the
official international organization which, among other responsibilities,
conducts on-site inspections of plants and monitors activities within
the chemical industry.
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