OPCW Director-General Pfirter to attend the Convention’s 10th anniversary celebration in Helsinki
Press release 160/2007
29 August 2007
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons entered into force in April 1997, and so far it has 182 Member States. Verifin, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are jointly organising a seminar marking the CWC’s 10th anniversary; it will be held at Gustavelund, in Tuusula, on 5–7 September. The seminar will be opened by Rogelio Pfirter, Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. During his visit, Pfirter will also meet with Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva on Wednesday 5 September.
The Chemical Weapons Convention stipulates the destruction of all existing chemical weapons and their production plants within a set period of time. The Convention also created an international verification mechanism to monitor that each Member State implements the provisions laid down in the CWC. In ten years, 2.78 million chemical munitions and containers have been destroyed by virtue of the Convention; this represents about a quarter of all chemical weapons.
Implementation of the Convention is promoted and monitored by the OPCW – the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – which has its headquarters in The Hague, The Netherlands. Director-General Pfirter of Argentina has been head of the OPCW since 2002. He has visited Finland before, in 2005.
Verifin, the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, is among the world’s leading laboratories in analyses related to chemical weapons. Verifin operates under the auspices of the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and its director is Paula Vanninen.
Additional information and requests for interviews: Ambassador Mikko Jokela, Finland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), mobile tel. +31 (0)6 537 570 76; Counsellor Kimmo Laukkanen, Finland’s Embassy, The Hague, mobile tel.+31 (0)6 200 726 20; and Director Paula Vanninen, Verifin, mobile tel. +358 (0)40 550 2204; as well as http://www.opcw.org(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) and http://www.helsinki.fi/verifin(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)