Chemical weapons convention transmitted to General Assembly.

In a major step towards achieving a global ban on chemical weapons, the Conference on Disarmament adopted and transmitted to the General Assembly the text of the 24-article Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

It took that action on 3 September at the end of its annual session, which was held in Geneva in three parts - from 21 January to 27 March, 11 May to 26 June, and 20 July to 3 September.

The approval of the final draft by the Conference signified the conclusion of more than 10 years of negotiations. The General Assembly, after commending the new treaty, will request the UN Secretary-General, as Depositary of the Convention, to open it for signature at a special conference in Paris on 13 January 1993.

The Convention totally prohibits chemical weapons and any activities aimed at or contributing to their use. The ban extends not only to chemical warfare agents as such, but also to the means of delivery.

By the Convention, States parties are obliged to destroy all chemical weapons, including those abandoned, and chemical weapons. production facilities. Routine as well as short-notice "challenge" inspections of Government and industrial facilities are to be conducted to verify compliance. Built-in safeguards, including sanctions, deal with situations where basic obligations are not respected.

To implement the Convention, an organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is to be established at The Hague, Netherlands.

In addition to chemical weapons, the Conference also dealt with: a nuclear test ban; cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective assurances for non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types and new systems of weapons of mass destruction; radiological weapons; a comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments.

In a closing statement, Conference President Michel Servais of Belgium said the 1992 report represented the "art of the possible". While the results in certain areas had been "rather meagre", in other areas, notably chemical weapons, Conference members could have "every reason to be delighted with their achievements".

The Conference on Disarmament is the world's single forum for multilateral disarmament negotiations. It consists of the five nuclear-weapon States - China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States - other militarily significant States, as well as neutral and non-aligned countries which form the "Group of 21". Non-members have been invited, upon their request, to participate in its work.

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In his opening message to the Conference, Secretary-General Boustros Boustros-Ghali had stated that the end of the cold war had opened up unprecedented opportunities for the world community to seek a new system of international relations in which the costly burden of arms accumulation is replaced by efforts to ensure the security of all nations at substantially reduced levels of armaments and armed forces.

Mr. Boustros-Ghali, in welcoming on 11 September the Conference's adoption of the draft Convention, said it was the "result of many years of multilateral negotiation" and offered the international community the "long awaited opportunity to eliminate completely a whole category of weapons of mass destruction".

Adolf Ritter von Wagner of Germany, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical Weapons, said that future States parties were offered a "balanced legal instrument providing clarity on the fundamental obligations" and also "enough subtlety on matters of implementation" so that, with the consent of States parties, the respective provisions might still mature and evolve in the course of future practice.

Ronald Lehman II, Director of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, said the Conference has succeeded this year in completing its "seemingly endless negotiations" to ban chemical weapons. That was a "major achievement towards a safer, more secure world". The United States, he continued, was "committed to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile" within the 10-year destruction period specified in the Convention.

Serguei Batsanov of the Russian Federation said that although some of the draft provisions caused "serious problems" to his Government - those relating to the cost of international verification and the definition of specialized equipment - Russia had not blocked the draft's submission to the Assembly.

Sir Michael Weston of the United Kingdom, before the adoption of the text, cited some shortcomings, in particular in the area of verification, time-tables and monitoring of the Convention's implementation. His country considered the draft "the best achievable" in the foreseeable future and had therefore accepted it.

According to Gerard Errera of France, the Convention could be considered as the "first genuine universal disarmament treaty". When the will of States existed, the Conference was "in a position to reach ambitious goals", and the rule of consensus had "paved the way of universality", he added.

Hou Zhitong of China said that his country, "as a non-chemical-weapon State and a victim of the scourage of foreign chemical weapons", had always "stood firmly" for the early conclusion of such a convention. Despite some reservations on a number of important issues, China had joined the consensus on the draft.

Other matters

The work of the Conference took on an exceptional character during the current session as priority was given to the chemical weapons draft. In view of that, other subsidiary bodies reduced their workload. Nevertheless, in the light of the conclusion of the chemical weapons negotiations, delegates called for progress in other areas.

There was general agreement that the Conference must immediately begin serious consideration of the question of a nuclear-test ban and moved to re-establish its AD Hoc Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban at the beginning of its 1993 session.

Delegates stressed that in light of recent positive changes in the world, a "fresh look" was needed at the substance of negative security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon States. The international community had also to contribute actively to bilateral measures of nuclear disarmament and arms limitation. The concept of a global monitoring system to detect and identify seismic events - including its overall design - should be reassessed.

Some Eastern European delegations and members of the "Group of 21" supported the convening of a group of experts to identify new types of weapons of mass destruction. Western delegations maintained the view that as no new types of such weapons had been identified since 1948, nor was their existence imminent, the practice followed thus far of making plenary statements and holding informal Conference meetings from time to time was the most appropriate one to deal with this question.

Discussions on transparency in armaments - a new item on the Conference's agenda in accordance with Assembly resolution 46/36 - were limited to a preliminary exchange of views and no attempt was made to reach agreement on any of the ideas raised.

New Convention:

Towards a global ban on chemical weapons

The 24-article Convention, with it s three annexes (on chemicals, verification and confidentiality and a text on the prepratory commission for an Organization for the Prohibition of chemical Weapons - all of which total 184 pages in length - was sent to the General Assembly by the Conference on Disarmament. Following is an overview of some important provisions.

Under ARTICLE I, each State party undertakes: never under any circumstances to develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer them, directly indirectly, to anyone; to use or engage in any activity prohibited under the convention. engage in any activity prohibited under the convention.

Each State party is obliged to destroy chemical weapons and such production facilities it owns or possesses or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control, as well as all chemical weapons it may have abandoned on the territory of another State party. Each State party will use riot control agents as a method of warfare.

ARTICLE II defines "chemicals weapons", "toxic chemicals", "precursor". "old" and "abandoned" chemical weapons, "riot control agents", "chemical weapons production facility" and "production capacity."

Under ARTICLE III, each State party will submit to the Organization, not later than 30 days after the Convention enters into force, declarations with respect to chemical weapons and their facilities, specifying their precise location and quantity and providing a general plan for their destruction.

ARTICLES IV and V contain detailed and rigorous provisions governing the destruction of chemical weapons and their production facilities, including verification. Complete destruction would be required within 10 years. Should a State party, in exceptional cases, for technological, financial, ecological or other reasons not be in a position to do so, the Convention would allow for the possibility of extending that time-frame by up to five more years. Furthermore, in exceptional cases of "compelling need", ARTICLE V permits States parties to convert, rather than destroy chemical weapons production facilities, but only under strict conditions preventing possible reconversion and rigorous additional verification measures.

ARTICLE VI, in conjunction with the Verification Annex, sets forth a comprehensive and graduated regime for international monitoring, through declarations and on-site inspections, of "activities not prohibited under the convention", in particular in the chemical industry.

ARTICLE VII, on national implementation measures, outlines general undertaking and relations between the State party and the organization to be set up under the convention. ARTICLE VIII establishes the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at The Hague, to ensure the implementation of the Convention. The Organization will comprise: a Conference of the States parties composed of all member States, which will be the principal organ; the Executive Council with a membership of the 41 States parties; and a Technical Secretariat headed by the Secretary-General.

Procedures for consultative clarification and short-notice "challenge inspections" are set forth, in conjuction with the Verification Annex, in ARTICLE IX.

ARTICLE X, on assistance and protection against chemical weapons, provide built-in safeguards of the Convention to protect States parties against the hypothetically continuing sex of being threatened or attacked by chemical weapons. It provides: for the establishment of a voluntary fund for assistance by the conference of States parties; for assistance through the organization in case of the use or threat of use of chemical weapons against a State party; and for immediate emergency assistance directly from other States parties.

ARTICLE XI aims at promoting expanded international trade, technological development and economic cooperation in the chemical sector for purposes not prohibited under the Convention.

ARTICLE XII is considered the principal safeguard of the Convention to protect States parties against violations of the basic obligations by other States parties. It provides the means to remedy any situation which contravenes the provisions of the Convention. For example, the organization may require a State party deemed not to be in full compliance with the Convention to take remedial action and, the event it fails to do so, apply a number of penalties, including sanctions. In cases of particular gravity, the conference of State parties would bring the issue to the attention of the General Assembly and the Security Council.

The remaining 12 articles of the Convention deal with its relation to other international agreements, settlement of disputes, amendments, duration of the Convention and withdrawal of a State party, status of the annexes, signature, ratification, accession, entry into force, reservations, depositary and authentic texts.

The Convention, to be of unlimited duration, will enter into force 180 days after the date of the deposit of the 65th instrument of ratification, but in no case earlier than two years after its opening for signature.