Chemical Weapons Convention

The Chemical Weapons Convention is an international arms control treaty that bans the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons, and requires the destruction of existing stocks. It was opened for signature in Paris, after years of negotiation at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and came into force a few years later. Compliance is checked by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. Almost every country in the world has joined, and the declared stockpiles of the major possessors have been destroyed or are nearly so. The treaty has nonetheless been tested by use of chemical weapons in conflicts such as the Syrian civil war.

Open on the timeline