OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria

The OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria was established in October 2013. The Mission was tasked to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program. The first OPCW-UN team arrived in Damascus on 1 October 2013. By 23 June 2014, Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons was shipped out of the country or destructed. The mission officially ended on 30 September 2014.

Background

On 27 September 2013, the OPCW Executive Council adopted a historic decision EC-M-33/DEC.1 on the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons program.[1] This decision was endorsed by the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 (2013) on the same day.[2]

The Executive Council decision set out an accelerated program for achieving the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons by mid-2014. It required inspections in Syria to commence from 1 October 2013 and called for ambitious milestones for destruction which were to be set by the Executive Council by 15 November.

The decision was informed by the preceding Framework Agreement on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons, reached by the Russian Federation and the United States of America on 14 September, and facilitated the request by the Syrian Arab Republic that the Chemical Weapons Convention be applied ahead of the formal entry into force of the Convention for Syria on 14 October.[3]

The mission

The OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria was formally established on 16 October 2013.[4] The Mission has been tasked to oversee the timely elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program in the safest and most secure manner possible. It has continued the work undertaken to this end by the OPCW-UN advance team that arrived in Damascus on 1 October 2013.

On 23 June 2014, and important milestone was reached when the last shipment of Syria's declared chemical weapons was shipped out of the country for destruction.[5]

The mission officially ended on 30 September 2014.[6]

Aftermath

OPCW's operations the Syrian Arab Republic continued after the OPCW-UN Joint Mission ended. A mission called The OPCW mission in Syria continued to deal with the destruction of chemical weapon production facilities and clarification of certain aspects of the initial declaration.[6]

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ "EC-M-33/DEC.1" (PDF). www.opcw.org. OPCW.
  2. ↑ "Resolution 2118 (2013)". www.un.org. UN. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013.
  3. ↑ "OPCW Executive Council Adopts Historic Decision on Destruction of Syria Chemical Weapons". www.opcw.org. OPCW. 27 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "About OPCW-UN Joint Mission". OPCW-UN Joint Mission. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  5. ↑ "Last of Syria's chemical weapons shipped out". BBC News. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  6. 1 2 "OPCW-UN Joint Mission draws to a close". OPCW-UN Joint Mission. 1 October 2014.
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