Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition (CWCC)

The CWCC was launched at a special meeting on the margins of the 14th Session of the Conference of the States Parties in December 2009. The main purpose of the Coalition is to act as a collective mechanism to enhance involvement and engagement by NGOs with the OPCW and with implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. I want to encourage all interested NGOs to join the CWCC; for more information on its activities, visit the Coalition website.

The Coalition is currently putting together a roster of expertise that is represented across its membership. The roster will be shared with relevant offices in the OPCW Technical Secretariat that regularly organise capacity-building meetings, seminars, workshops, etc. in order that individuals and organisations on the CWCC roster may be considered as prospective resources for such events. So if you and your organisation have expertise relevant to CWC implementation, join the Coalition and get onto the roster now!

By way of example, in the recent international seminar on the “OPCW’s Contribution to Global Security and Non-proliferation,” major event held at the Technical Secretariat on 11-12 April 2011, a Coalition member was among the keynote speakers in the opening plenary session and several others presented in the working sessions.

Summer Programme on WMD Disarmament and Nonproliferation, 29 Aug – 2 Sep 2011

This innovative week-long programme was jointly developed and launched by the OPCW and TMC Asser Institute in August 2010, and focuses on young professionals and advanced graduate students who are interested in developing careers in this area. Course content comprehensively covers the nuclear, chemical and biological spheres and is delivered by practicing professionals from IAEA, OPCW, CTBTO, BWC-ISU and UNODA as well as prominent experts in the field. The first-year effort won high praise from presenters and participants alike, and the 2011 agenda incorporates their ideas and suggestions to make the programme even stronger. Registrations will be accepted until mid-July but seats are going fast, so if you are interested, visit the Asser Institute webpage for the event and submit your application now.

Welcome to the new OPCW civil society blog!

As the official Point of Contact within the OPCW Technical Secretariat for NGOs, I’m launching this blog today to facilitate and encourage informal communication with external stakeholders in this sector. In OPCW parlance, “NGOs” and “civil society” constitute all stakeholders who aren’t State Parties, international organisations or chemical industry, which potentially includes academics, policy and research institutes, think tanks, CBRN and counter-terrorism specialists, as well as traditional non-profit NGOs, inter alia.

That’s quite a wide range of disciplines, far exceeding my own sphere of knowledge and expertise. And so while this blog will seek to engage as many of these stakeholder communities as possible, it will do so within the context of some specific issues.

The first of these is to increase access for civil society stakeholders to OPCW decision makers, information and events. Since assuming office in July 2010 the OPCW Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, has taken every opportunity to meet with civil society stakeholders and to give their views a close hearing. He has also commissioned the development of the first OPCW strategy and action plan for public diplomacy, which has civil society outreach at its core. This blog will be an open, ongoing discussion of ways and means to manifest our commitment to greater openness by enhancing your engagement in OPCW affairs.

A second issue of focus will be to stimulate greater awareness and understanding of the Convention and work of the OPCW, by leveraging the communication capacities of our civil society partners. Despite 14 years of steady progress in destroying chemical weapons stockpiles, consolidating an industrial inspections regime, and bringing 188 countries into the Convention as States Parties, the OPCW remains largely unknown today outside of arms control circles – a fact which, among other things, is a simple disservice to history. Furthermore, as we move from an emphasis on CW destruction to non-proliferation and related priorities in coming years, this evolution will naturally offer more avenues of participation to a wider range of stakeholders. This blog will regularly explore opportunities to expand public outreach and participation.

And finally, we want to stimulate more informal communication as a valuable feedback loop to inform the further development of activities. In this regard I want to draw your attention to the launch of our new social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr and encourage you to Share them with your own networks of friends and colleagues. Just visit our website (www.opcw.org)  and “Join the OPCW Network”.

In addition, we now have in-house audiovisual production capacities that allow us to podcast interviews and Livestream special OPCW events, such as we did for the recent seminar on non-proliferation (http://www.opcw.org/events-calendar/nps ). This will allow all interested members of the public to participate remotely in such events and post questions or comments to them via email or Twitter.

Going forward, I’ll be posting regular updates on new developments and opportunities – and will look forward to hearing your views!

Best regards,

Michael Luhan

Spokesman and Head, Media and Public Affairs