The Chemical Weapons Convention Hits a Snag

The global effort to ban chemical weapons runs into a diplomatic disturbance.

Photo by mick henson on Unsplash

You could be forgiven for not knowing much about a recently concluded major international conference dedicated to the elimination of chemical weapons. As far as I can tell, precisely zero media outlets covered the Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference in the Hague. A Google News search reveals a few think tank reports here and there, but nothing from any english language media outlet.

Still, the outcome of this conference is critically important to the prohibition of one of the worst weapons humans ever created! It was an opportunity for the parties to the convention to assess progress and plan ways to strengthen the treaty going forward.

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997 and is one of the most widely adopted multilateral treaties. Only four countries have not yet ratified: North Korea, South Sudan, Egypt and Israel. And in just a few months, the Chemical Weapons Convention will hit a major milestone when the world’s l…