On the occasion of the launch of SIPRI Yearbook 2013, SIPRI held a seminar at Rosenbad, Stockholm on the international response to allegations of chemical weapon use. The speakers considered current mechanisms for investigating alleged use of chemical weapons and discussed future options for raising the quality and availability of authoritative data on chemical weapon use.
In
the past two decades events have underlined the importance of obtaining authoritative information as the basis for
responding to
allegations
of
chemical weapons
use.
A long established United Nations legal mechanism is in place to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) implements the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which contains provisions for requesting such investigations. Governments and international organizations are currently considering as an urgent matter how to acquire the authoritative information that they need as the basis for future decisions.
Left to right: Ian Anthony (SIPRI), Dr Åke Sellström (Head, UN
Secretary-General investigation team), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü
(Director-General, OPCW), Ambassador Jorge Lomonaco (Ambassador
of Mexico to Sweden), Jan A. Lodding (Deputy Director, Swedish
Department for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation) and SIPRI Director
Professor Tilman Brück. Image by Jasmin Beisiegel.
The key address was given by Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, Director-General of the OPCW. Dr Åke Sellström, Head of the UN Secretary-General's investigation teqam in Syria discussed some lessons learned from the mechanism for investigation of alleged use of chemical and
biological weapons.
SIPRI's Dr Ian Anthony discussed the information challenge and the potential uses of new social media reporting techniques. Finally, Jan A. Lodding, Deputy Director of the Swedish Department for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, provided the Swedish perspective.
Here are some selected tweets from the event:
Professor Tilman Brück, SIPRI's Director, gives opening remarks, noting that the arms trade treaty opens for signature today.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) June 3, 2013
Amb. Üzümcü: universality is an important goal for the #OPCW, with 188 states parties and, soon, Somalia as a full member.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) June 3, 2013
Sellström: lesson from #Syria is need for a common understanding of how to conduct investigative missions & people capable of leading them.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) June 3, 2013
Lodding: important to continue to support the #OPCW and ensure that it remains a repository of knowledge on chem-bio weapons.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) June 3, 2013