Every year on 30 November, the United Nations observes the Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare. On that day, the international community reflects on the people killed and injured by these horrific weapons and renews its collective efforts to ensure that no one suffers from the effects of these weapons again.
This call is at the core of the work of the United Nations to eliminate chemical weapons. Through the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and in close partnership with Member States, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and with entities throughout the United Nations system, the United Nations continues to advocate for a world free of chemical weapons and to promote efforts to prevent their re-emergence.
A long history and a global commitment
The international community has long attempted to eliminate chemical weapons. After witnessing the devastating impact of such weapons on the battlefields of the First World War, States negotiated the 1925 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (known as the Geneva Protocol), which prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons in war. This was a significant step forward but not enough to fully eradicate such weapons. While the Protocol prohibited their use, it did not outlaw their development, production and stockpiling. As such, many States continued to develop and stockpile chemical weapons throughout the twentieth century.
In the 1980s and 1990s, events such as the chemical attack in Halabja, Iraq, and the nerve agent attacks in Japan by a non-State actor, reminded the international community that chemical weapons have not yet been consigned to history. These incidents and others like them galvanized renewed calls for stronger international action. After many years of negotiations, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was adopted by the Conference on Disarmament, held in Geneva in 1992, and opened for signature in 1993; it entered into force in 1997.
CWC was a landmark achievement—it was the first multilateral treaty to provide for the verifiable elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States Parties.
Over the years, 193 countries have joined CWC, which translates to approximately 98 per cent of the world’s population living under the protection of the Convention.
CWC also established OPCW as the implementing body for the Convention. An essential component of the mission of OPCW since its establishment has been the destruction of stockpiles declared by States Parties to the Convention. In 2023, after 25 years of dedicated and diligent work, OPCW verified that all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons around the world, totalling 72,304 metric tonnes, had been irreversibly destroyed. This was a milestone achievement for the disarmament regime and an important step towards the goal of a world free of chemical weapons.
Cooperation on continued challenges
Yet despite the near-universal commitment to CWC and the progress made on the destruction of declared stockpiles, the world is still not free from the threat of chemical weapons, and concerns are growing about their re-emergence. Shockingly, we have also continued to witness the use of chemical weapons—in Malaysia, the Syrian Arab Republic and the United Kingdom—and allegations of chemical weapons use have also been made in several ongoing conflicts. Even more alarming is the deplorable use of such weapons against civilians.
The United Nations, OPCW and States Parties to CWC must maintain their commitment to preventing the re-emergence of chemical weapons, which could arise from several sources, such as State programmes, the diversion of relevant materials to non-State actors, or the repurposing of existing chemical facilities for nefarious purposes. Advances in science and technology, such as artificial intelligence, also threaten to lower the barriers to the acquisition of such weapons and could facilitate new ways to acquire, manufacture and disseminate them.
The United Nations is committed to addressing these challenges. Of particular importance is the cooperation between the United Nations and OPCW. The mutually reinforcing nature of our work was exemplified through the efforts to eliminate the Syrian chemical weapons programme and investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Through the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic (the “Sellström Investigation”), the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations for the Elimination of the Chemical Weapons Programme of the Syrian Arab Republic, and the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), our two organizations have worked together to identify those responsible for the confirmed uses of chemical weapons in Syria.
Although these mechanisms have concluded, UNODA continues to cooperate with OPCW on issues related to the Syrian chemical weapons programme, notably efforts to clarify the full extent and scope of the programme and, in due course, fully eliminate any remaining components and thereby fully implement Security Council resolution 2118 (2013). UNODA also continues to support efforts to ensure accountability for the perpetrators of any chemical weapons use. To this end, UNODA has cooperated with the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to assist in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 regarding materials in the JIM and Sellström Investigation archives that may assist the work of IIIM on cases of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
UNODA also supports efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-State actors through the Support Unit for United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), which coordinates with OPCW on efforts to raise awareness about export controls relevant for chemical weapons.
A future free of chemical weapons
In the text of CWC, States committed to being “determined for the sake of all mankind, to exclude completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons”.
UNODA will continue to support all efforts towards this goal, to uphold the norm against chemical weapons, and to finally relegate chemical weapons to history.
The Day of Remembrance for All Victims of Chemical Warfare must be more than a moment of reflection. It must serve as a call to action for States to renew their commitments to prevent any use of these horrific weapons and hold accountable those who would dare to use them in violation of global norms and international law. Only by ensuring a future free of chemical weapons will we truly honour the victims of the past.
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