Director General Rogelio Pfirter of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons visits Finland
Press release 47/2005
10 February, 2005
Director General Rogelio Pfirter of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will visit Finland on 14-16 February at the invitation of Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. During his visit he will meet with Minister Tuomioja, members of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. Pfirter will also visit the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention which is located in Kumpula, Helsinki, and he will speak at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs on the subject "Challenges of Prohibiting Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)".
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction entered into force in 1997 and currently includes 167 signatory states. The Convention obligates the member states to destroy the existing chemical weapons and their production facilities. The Convention also established an international monitoring mechanism which allows for the verification of compliance to the agreement.
The implementation of the Convention is monitored and promoted by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, which is located in The Hague. The national Finnish authority is called the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, or VERIFIN, which is one of the leading laboratories in the world on the analysis of chemical warfare agents.
Argentinean Rogelio Pfirter has been OPCW´s Director General since 2002.
Further information: Director Laura Kansikas-Debraise, Unit for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. 09 1605 6185