Five things you need to know about Nobel Peace Prize winner OPCW

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said. Here’s all you need to know about the OPCW, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. 1. What is the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons? The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation whose basic job is to promote countries’ adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of chemical weapons. In order to verify countries’ adherence to the ruling, the OPCW carries out both evaluation of declarations by members states and on-site inspections. The organisation is located in The Hague, Netherlands. [caption id=“attachment_1166509” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] 2. What work have they done to make them worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize? Director General of the OPCW from 2002 to 2010 Rogelio Pfirter points out some of the organisation’s achievements which might shed some light on this Nobel Peace Prize winner: “After just over a decade of existence, the OPCW today enjoys a membership of 184 countries covering 98 percent of the world’s population, giving it the fastest rate of accession in history for any disarmament treaty. Of the 11 UN Member States that remain outside the Convention, Iraq and Lebanon are well advanced in their domestic procedures with the parliaments in both countries having approved accession to the Convention.” So the OPCW is the most widely-spanning chemical weapon disarmament organisation, and therefore the most effective. But what have they been effective about? In this interview with OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü, Üzümcü points out that the very fact that the usage of chemical weapons has been controlled is a massive achievement. Üzümcü  said: “The implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention over the past 15 years has been successful, especially in the field of demilitarisation. The level of destruction of declared chemical weapons stockpiles has reached the level of 78 percent under the verification of the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW. I think this is a significant achievement, which needs to be acknowledged. It has required the allocation of a lot of resources by possessor states-parties, as well as by the organization itself.” To get into the nitty-gritty of the organisation’s achievements: Six states party to the Convention have declared chemical weapons stockpiles, and all have engaged in destroying them under strict OPCW verification and oversight. More than 40% of the total of 71,000 metric tonnes of declared chemical agent has now been destroyed, as have one third of the 8.7 million declared chemical munitions. These stockpiles include large quantities of highly lethal nerve agents like VX, a mere droplet of which, if properly disbursed, would kill everyone in a room in minutes. So destroying such agents and munitions is a very dangerous, time-consuming and expensive challenge. Of equal importance is the fact that 95 percent of all declared chemical weapons production facilities have been completely destroyed or converted to be used for peaceful purposes. OPCW inspectors have regularly monitored and verified all of these demilitarisation activities. 3. What are they doing about Syria’s chemical weapons? The tiny organisation of the OPCW is new to the hustle-bustle of Syria’s chemical weapon disarmament, which is operating under a very tight deadline of 1 November. Just six weeks ago, the OPCW was mainly involved in the calmer work of overlooking the destruction of Cold War-era weapons of US and Russian weaponry. But now, the organisation has been feted for how quickly they have been able to switch to war-footing for the Syria situation. The OPCW is working in cooperation with both the United Nations as well as the Syrian government to oversee the destruction of chemical weapon stockpiles. Inspectors visited a first site earlier this week, where they saw some chemical weapons equipment destroyed, and are expected to visit more than 20 others over the coming days, said Uzumcu in a CNN report . “The cooperation has been quite constructive, and I will say that the Syrian authorities have been cooperative,” Uzumcu told reporters at The Hague on Wednesday. The OPCW is doing a very efficient job under a tight deadline and with facing significant challenges , with teams having to cross front lines and move through dangerous rebel-controlled areas. Read the OPCW’s official statement on Syria here . 4. Are they connected to the United Nations? The organisation is not an agency of the United Nations, but cooperates both on policy and practical issues. The OPCW signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations in 2000 outlining how they would coordinate their activities, which we can see in force in Syria now. 5. What are the problems - if any - with the functioning of the OPCW? Uzumcu highlighted some of the issues the organisation faces in an interview: “On the national implementation part, half of states-parties still have no national legislation to enforce the convention. This is a major challenge for the future of the organisation. Even if those countries have nothing to declare, I think it is in the interest of the international community and the overall membership of the OPCW to ensure global implementation of the convention because they may be used as transit countries.__”