List of parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention



The member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) encompasses the states who have signed and ratified or acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international agreement outlawing the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.

On January 13, 1993, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was opened for signature. Fiji became the first state to ratify the treaty on January 20, 1993. The treaty entered into force on April 29, 1997, after it had been ratified by 65 states. The treaty was closed for signature on the preceding day, and states that did not sign the convention can now only accede to it. For states that ratified or acceded to the treaty after this date, the convention entered into force for them 31 days after their deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession.

A total of 196 states may become members of the Chemical Weapons Convention, including all 193 United Nations member states, the Cook Islands, Holy See and Niue. As of September 2013, 190 states have ratified or acceded to the treaty (most recently Syria on 14 September 2013 ) and another two states have signed but not ratified the treaty. Aside from newly independent South Sudan, all states which are not parties have been accused of possessing chemical weapons.

Of the six non-parties, both Angola and Myanmar have committed to ratifying the CWC. Ahmet Üzümcü, director-general of the OPCW, stated in December 2013 that these two states as well as South Sudan were "very close" to becoming a party to the CWC, but that the remaining three states (Egypt, Israel and North Korea) had "regional reasons" for not joining. Egypt has promised to ratify the CWC if Israel, the only state in the Middle East that is believed to possess nuclear weapons, signs the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Israel, meanwhile, has stated that it will ratify the CWC if all other non-parties in the region (of which only Egypt remains) do so as well, though it has been reluctant to sign up due to an unwillingness to grant OPCW inspectors access to its military bases. North Korea is thought to be unlikely to become a party for the foreseeable future.

Ratified or acceded states
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Other
undefined, though not eligible to become a party to the CWC due to its limited recognition, has stated that it attempts to comply with the treaty.