Who are the Nobel-prize-winning chemical weapon sleuths?
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Version 0 of 1. The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been announced today as the 2013 Nobel Peace prize winner for "its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons." But with the announcement of this year's winner has come the question; who are the OPCW and what do they do? Who are the OPCW? Established in 1997, the OPCW is an organisation that implements the Chemical Weapons Convention - a treaty that prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons and which came into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW currently has a membership of 189 states. Somalia became the 189th state party to the treaty on 28 June 2013 but there are still seven other states that have not yet joined: Angola, North Korea, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, South Sudan and Syria. The tables below show signatory states which have not yet ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention and those that have neither signed nor acceded to the treaty. Signatory States which have not yet ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention Source: OPCW <strong></strong> States that have neither signed nor acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention Source: OPCW <strong></strong> What do they do? According to the OPCW's latest annual report published in November 2012, by the end of 2011 the total quantity of chemical weapons that the OPCW had verified as destroyed amounted to 51,505 metric tonnes (MTs). This is 72% of the quantity declared by the 'seven possessor states parties': Albania, India, Iraq, Libya, Russian Federation, USA and an anonymous state believed to be South Korea. Julian Borger writes today: Since its [OPCW] founding in 1997, it has overseen the elimination of over 80% of the world's declared chemical weapons stocks, starting with a bunker full of mustard gas and arsenic-based chemicals left behind by the communist regime in Albania. The entire stockpiles of India and South Korea have also been destroyed, as well as almost all of Muammar Gaddafi's stocks in Libya, and well over 90% of the vast US arsenal. Russia's – an ever bigger relic from the cold war – is two-thirds of the way to oblivion, and the OPCW is working on dismantling weapons left behind by Japan's wartime occupation of China. What have OPCW achieved? The latest available figures from the official OPCW site are as of September 2013 and give an insight as to what the organisation has achieved - although a full picture is lacking, with some information being deemed too sensitive to release. The latest available figures from their site show: <strong>Total declared stockpile:</strong> 71,196 metric tonnes<br /><strong>Total chemical weapons destroyed: </strong>58,172 metric tonnes, or 81.71% of total<br /><strong>Total items destroyed:</strong> 4.97m, or 57.32%, of the total 8.67m chemical munitions and containers <strong>Chemical weapons production facilities declared:</strong> 70<br /><strong>Inactivated:</strong> 70 <br /><strong>Completed destruction/conversion:</strong> 65<br />- of which destroyed: 43<br />- converted for peaceful purposes: 22 13 countries have declared chemical weapons production facilities: Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, France, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Libya, Russia, Serbia, UK, USA, and 'another state party'. <strong>Old chemical weapons: </strong><br />- 15 States had reported old chemical weapons on their territory by the end of 2011<br />- 7 States reported new findings of old chemical weapons in 2011 According to OPCW's latest annual report, 6,429 metric tonnes of chemical weapons were verified as destroyed by the organisation in 2011, in Libya, Russia and the US. Of the 51,505 metric tonnes of chemical weapons verified destroyed by OPCW in total as of 31 December 2011, 50,585 metric tonnes were classed as 'category 1' chemical weapons (49,364 metric tonnes of unitary chemical weapons - toxic agents like sarin - and 1,221 metric tonnes of binary chemical weapons - chemical precursors which are less toxic separately than when mixed together). 920 metric tonnes were classed as 'category 2'. A further 25,974 chemical weapons abandoned by Japan on territory in China were reported to have been destroyed at a facility in Nanjing in 2011. Possessor state parties Of the seven states parties that have declared chemical weapons, six of these (Albania, India, Libya, Russian Federation, USA and 'anonymous' state) have declared, in total, 71,195.086 metric tonnes of chemical warfare agents and precursors, as well as 8,680,079 munitions and containers. Iraq has declared chemical weapons but the volume had not been established by the end of 2011. Albania was the first state to destroy all of its chemical weapons, in July 2007. How common is it for an organisation to scoop the prize? According to the Nobelprize.org, 94 peace prizes have been awarded between 1901 and 2013. Of these, 25 were received by organisations with 22 of the total going to individual organisations. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has received the peace prize twice (1954 and 1981) whilst the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been honoured three times (1917, 1944 and 1963). OPCW Member States Source: OPCW <strong></strong> Download the data • DATA: download the full spreadsheet More open data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do more with this data? • Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk<br /><strong><br />• Follow us on Twitter<br />• Like us on Facebook</strong> Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |