OPCW Preparatory Commission and its PTS: A Case Study in international teamwork

By Ian R Kenyon
(Executive Secretary 1993 - 97)

It is almost exactly ten years since I sat, on 15 February 1993, at a borrowed desk in the offices of the OPCW Foundation, on Noordwal in The Hague, wondering how one set about establishing the Technical Secretariat of a new international organisation, OPCW. The job had a particular urgency, not just because the Chemical Weapons Convention could enter into force any time after 12 January 1995, less than two years away but, more particularly, because the Preparatory Commission, at its first meeting the previous week, had decided to start its substantive work with an expert group meeting, leaving only one week for me to find a conference room and to set up rudimentary conference servicing facilities. That we were able to solve this problem and the many, much larger ones that followed was due to teamwork from the group who came from all over the world to join the PTS (we ultimately counted 65 different nationalities) and to unstinting support from the members of national delegations on the Commission and its working bodies and from the Netherlands Government and the City of The Hague, acting through the OPCW Foundation.

In the end, the deposit of the required 65 ratifications took longer than the specified two years and it was April/May 1997 before the CWC entered into force and the OPCW held its first Conference of States Parties, organised and serviced by its own Technical Secretariat. It is a source of great pride to me and to all the team that OPCW was able to meet all the deadlines set out in the CWC for receipt of declarations and for initial inspections with all the necessary infrastructure in place. I am well aware that the Preparatory Commission was unable to complete all the tasks laid upon it in the Paris Resolution and that OPCW has had to find its own solutions over its first six years of existence but at least we provided a more than adequate launching pad.

Now that enough time has passed to provide a certain perspective, but while most of us are still around to remember what happened, it seems a good time to try to capture the history and to start to analyse the lessons. I am happy to announce that the Harvard Sussex Program, based at SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research in the University of Sussex in the UK, has offered to support a project for this purpose. Daniel Feakes, who spent three years at OPCW as HSP Researcher has agreed to take on the job of principal researcher, I shall provide as much help as I can and the whole will be under the expert supervision of Professor Julian Perry Robinson, who has made a lifetime study of CBW arms control and disarmament. The Director General, Mr Pfirter, has assured us of his support.

The next stage will be to obtain the input of as many as possible of those who played a part in those four years hard work; in delegations, in the PTS, and in some cases both! We will be seeking you out where we can find the necessary staff and delegation lists and current contact information but please don't feel you have to wait for us. If you would like to help by sharing your memories and opinions please send us your contact details. We can be reached by Mail, Fax or e-Mail at:

OPCW PC Project
c/o Harvard Sussex Program
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QE
United Kingdom

Tel: ++44 (0)1273 87741
Fax: ++44 (0)1273 685865
e-mail: cwc-pc@sussex.ac.uk

We look forward to hearing from you and I look forward to working with you again.