Contents
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL ISSUES
The Chemical Weapons Convention-Objectives Principles and Implementation Practice
The Adoption of the Convention and the Convention and the Work of the Preparatory Commission
Efforts by the OPCW to Promote Universality
The Role of Civil Society and Industrial Non-State Actors in Relation to the Chemical Weapons Convention
PART TWO: THE PREAMBLE TO THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION
Preamble
PART THREE: ARTICLES OF THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION
Article I: General Obligations
Article II: Definitions and Criteria
Article III: Declarations
Article IV: Chemical Weapons
Article V: Chemical Weapons Production Facilities
Article VI: Activities Not Prohibited under the Convention
Article VII: National Not Implementation Measures
Article VIII: The Organization
Article IX: Consultations Cooperation and Fact Finding
Article X: Assistance and Protection against Chemical Weapons
Article XI: Economic and Technological Development
Article XII: Measures to Redress a Situation and to Ensure Compliance, Including Sanctions
Article XIII: Relation to Other International Agreements
Article XIV: Settlement of Disputes
Article XV: Amendments
Article XVI: Duration and Withdrawal
PART FOUR: FINAL CLAUSES
Article XVII: Status of the Annexes
Article XVIII to XXI: Signature, Ratification, Accession, and Entry-into-Force
Article XXII to XXIV: Reservations, Depositary and Authentic Texts
PART FIVE: ANNEXES TO THE CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION
PART SIX: ANNEX TO THE COMMENTARY

This book provides an article-by-article commentary on the text of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and its Annexes, one of the cornerstone disarmament and arms control agreements. It requires the verified elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction and their means of production by all its States Parties within established timelines, and that prohibits any activities to develop or otherwise acquire such weapons.
Cross-cutting chapters alongside the detailed commentary, by those intimately involved in the development of the Convention, assess the history of the efforts to prohibit chemical weapons, the adoption of the Convention and the work of the Preparatory Commission, the entry into force of the Convention to the Second Review Conference, and the need for a new approach for the governance of chemical weapons.