Attending the 24th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (November 25-29, 2019)

The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention held its Twenty-Fourth Session from Monday 25 November to Friday 29 November 2019 at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague, the Netherlands. Of the 193 States Parties, 155 countries, including Japan, participated in the Session.
 
In this Session, considering the recent use of chemical weapons, the Session of the Conference of the States Parties successfully adopted decisions in order to amend the Chemical Weapons Convention Annex on Chemicals for the first time in its history. This revised Annex includes the Novichok nerve agent, which was used as a chemical weapon in the UK in March 2018. Also, the Programme and Budget of the OPCW for 2020 was adopted by voting. This program and budget serves for the identification of perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons, which was mandated by the Conference of States Parties. Furthermore, Ambassador Horinouchi, Permanent Representative of Japan to the OPCW, made a statement during the General debate.
 

The session	Ambassador Horinouchi made his statement

　
Japan displayed panels and held a presentation on the second day of the session period, explaining the destruction project of abandoned chemical weapons by Japan in the People’s Republic of China to delegates and participants.
 

The Presentation by Ambassador Horinouchi at the event	Ambassador Horinouchi with Ambassador Fernando Arias, Director-General of the OPCW