Dhaka elected chair of chemical weapons prohibition body

Bangladesh has been elected the chair of the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a Holland-based inter-governmental body that promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Conventio, which forbids the use of such weapons and requires their destruction. The verification by the Council consists both of evaluation of declarations by member states and on-site inspections.
This is for the first-time Bangladesh has been elected to a high post like the chair of the executive council in the OPCW, a foreign ministry press release said yesterday.
“Bangladesh’s election as the chair manifests appreciation by the international community of our contribution to the world peace and signifies international recognition of her efforts to attain global disarmament and stem proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This historic win, in the month of our independence, will surely boost Bangladesh’s global standing further,” it said. Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the OPCW Sheikh Mohammed Belal was elected the chairperson of OPCW executive council yesterday for the term May 12, 2017 –May 11, 2018 nullifying the challenge of the Pakistan ambassador to that country. He was unanimously elected by the 41-member strong executive council comprising states that are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) during the 84th session of the council in Dutch capital The Hague between March 7 and 10.
Earlier on Monday, 53 member states belonging to the Asian group nominated Ambassador Belal as the consensus candidate of the group for the position of chairperson for 2017-2018 through straw poll, in which Ambassador Belal ‘easily nullified’ his contender, the ambassador of Pakistan to the Netherlands.
Ambassador Belal would be the twentieth chairperson of the Council since its establishment in 1997. Under the rotational system, the term for chairperson from the Asian group is available after every five years. So far, only four chairpersons from the Asian group represented this body.
The executive council is the governing body of the organisation. Its mandate is to promote the effective implementation of and compliance with the CWC. It is also required to supervise the activities of the secretariat, to cooperate with the national authority of each state party, and to facilitate consultations with and cooperation among the states parties, at their request.
The new chairperson of the Executive council has assumed greater importance as it would oversee the appointment of the new OPCW director-general in addition to more frequent exchanges with the UN Security Council over the reports of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) as well as the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the OPCW regarding the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian territory.

 

Dhaka elected chair of chemical weapons prohibition body

Bangladesh has been elected the chair of the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a Holland-based inter-governmental body that promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Conventio, which forbids the use of such weapons and requires their destruction. The verification by the Council consists both of evaluation of declarations by member states and on-site inspections. This is for the first-time Bangladesh has been elected to a high post like the chair of the executive council in the OPCW, a foreign ministry press release said yesterday. Bangladeshs election as the chair manifests appreciation by the international community of our contribution to the world peace and signifies international recognition of her efforts to attain global disarmament and stem proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This historic win, in the month of our independence, will surely boost Bangladeshs global standing further, it said. Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the OPCW Sheikh Mohammed Belal was elected the chairperson of OPCW executive council yesterday for the term May 12, 2017 May 11, 2018 nullifying the challenge of the Pakistan ambassador to that country. He was unanimously elected by the 41-member strong executive council comprising states that are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) during the 84th session of the council in Dutch capital The Hague between March 7 and 10. Earlier on Monday, 53 member states belonging to the Asian group nominated Ambassador Belal as the consensus candidate of the group for the position of chairperson for 2017-2018 through straw poll, in which Ambassador Belal easily nullified his contender, the ambassador of Pakistan to the Netherlands. Ambassador Belal would be the twentieth chairperson of the Council since its establishment in 1997. Under the rotational system, the term for chairperson from the Asian group is available after every five years. So far, only four chairpersons from the Asian group represented this body. The executive council is the governing body of the organisation. Its mandate is to promote the effective implementation of and compliance with the CWC. It is also required to supervise the activities of the secretariat, to cooperate with the national authority of each state party, and to facilitate consultations with and cooperation among the states parties, at their request. The new chairperson of the Executive council has assumed greater importance as it would oversee the appointment of the new OPCW director-general in addition to more frequent exchanges with the UN Security Council over the reports of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) as well as the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the OPCW regarding the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian territory.