April 2022 Newsletter

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We wanted to take this moment to thank everyone in this community for the work you have done to spread awareness about the treaty and support full implementation and universalization. While challenges lie ahead, we remain hopeful that we will one day see a world free from the threat of chemical weapons because of people like you.

In this month’s newsletter, we feature a request from Stefano Costanzi for CWC-related publications, an ACA press release about the 25th anniversary, and a statement from the OPCW about Ukraine.

REQUEST FOR SUBMISSIONS

Brett Edwards (University of Bath) and Stefano Costanzi (American University) are compiling a collection of papers and reports from civil society (including NGOs, academia, think tanks, etc.) with specific recommendations for the next CWC review conference.

The goal of this effort is to make these proposals clearly visible to the CWC states parties well before next year’s review conference, thus giving civil society a better chance to contribute to the outcome of the review conference. The finished product will be a simple and streamlined document that lists the paper/report title, a link, and a 3 to 4 bullet-point summary. Once the collection has been compiled, it will be made available on the CWC Coalition website.

If you have or are aware of a paper or report that should be included in this collection, please send the title, link, and a bullet point summary to Stefano Costanzi at [email protected]. Contributors do not need to be a member of the CWC Coalition. Please pass on this message to anyone who might be interested in contributing.

Note: Papers that have been collected thus far by Stefano Costanzi are listed below in the section titled “Collected Civil Society Papers and Reports.”

25th Anniversary of the CWC: ACA Press Release
On the 25th anniversary of the CWC’s entry into force, experts caution that despite the CWC’s numerous achievements, the global taboo against chemical weapons possession, production, and use cannot be taken for granted.

Read Press Release

Statement on Ukraine from the OPCW Spokesperson
The Secretariat has received from both the Russian Federation and Ukraine correspondence regarding threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons. The OPCW will continue to monitor the situation and keep in contact with concerned States Parties.

Read Statement

COLLECTED CIVIL SOCIETY PAPERS AND REPORTS

Strengthening controls on Novichoks: a family-based approach to covering A-series agents and precursors under the chemical-weapons nonproliferation regime, Stefano Costanzi and Gregory Koblentz (2022), The Nonproliferation Review, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10736700.2021.2020010
Meeting the Challenges of Chemical and Biological Weapons: Strengthening the Chemical and Biological Disarmament and Non-proliferation Regimes, Brett Edwards, Tatyana Novossiolova, Michael Crowley, Simon Whitby, Malcolm Dando, and Lijun Shang (2022), Frontiers in Political Science, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2022.805426/full
Enhancing the Management and Enforcement of Compliance in the Regime Prohibiting Chemical Weapons, Ralph Trapp and Cheng Tang (2021), UNIDIR, https://www.unidir.org/publication/enhancing-management-and-enforcement-compliance-regime-prohibiting-chemical-weapons
Rigid Structures, Evolving Threat: Preventing the Proliferation and Use of Chemical Weapons, Suzanne Claeys, Rebecca Hersman, and Cyrus A. Jabbari (2019), CSIS, https://www.csis.org/analysis/rigid-structures-evolving-threat-preventing-proliferation-and-use-chemical-weapons
Countering the future chemical weapons threat, Tuan H. Nguyen (2022), Science, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo6380

NEWS STORY TO WATCH

The Richmond Register: The last M55 rocket containing VX nerve agent was destroyed at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant April 19. “We are celebrating two milestones today,” said Dr. Candace Coyle, BGCAPP site project manager. “First, the entire U.S. stockpile of VX nerve agent is now completely destroyed. Next, this marks the completion of the fourth of five chemical weapons destruction campaigns in Kentucky.”