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Nobel Peace prize goes to OPCW for its work in chemical weapons decommissioning

The Oslo Committee rewards the organisation, which enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention, for its work in favour of a more peaceful world. The award is an invitation to Damascus to do the same, but also to Washington and Moscow, which have not yet dismantled their arsenal, as well as five countries-Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Israel and Myanmar-that have not yet signed the Convention.

Oslo (AsiaNews) - The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has been involved in recent weeks in the decommissioning of chemical weapons held by the Syrian regime headed by Bashar al Assad.

In announcing the award, the Committee said it awarded the prize to the OPCW "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons "around the world.

International "conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons," the Oslo Committee's statement said.

The award is thus a message to those countries that have not yet ratified the treaty banning chemical weapons. In fact, "Some states are still not members of the OPCW", namely Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Israel and Myanmar. And "Certain states have not observed the deadline, which was April 2012, for destroying their chemical weapons. This applies especially to the USA and Russia."

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is an intergovernmental organisation, located in The Hague, Netherlands; it promotes and verifies adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention which entered into force in 1997.