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Codes of conduct for scientists in the Codes of conduct for scientists in the

context of the Chemical Weapons context of the Chemical Weapons

ConventionConvention

Ralf Trapp

Office of the Deputy Director-General

OPCW

Meeting of the States Parties of the BWC

Geneva, 5 December 2005

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OverviewOverview

• CWC context

• Relevant recommendations of the First

CWC Review Conference

• Status of their implementation

• Joint project with the International

Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

(IUPAC)

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The CWC contextThe CWC contextEntry into force April 29, 1997

Membership 175 States Parties

(to date) 11 signatories8 non-signatories

First Review Conference (April/May 2003):

- Action Plan on national implementation (full

implementation of Article VII obligations by all

States Parties)

- Action Plan on universality (goal: universality of the

regime by 2007)

- Optimisation of the CWC verification regime

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Action Plan on National Action Plan on National

ImplementationImplementation

“it is imperative that those States Parties that still

need to do so take the necessary steps and set

realistic target dates for these steps leading to the leading to the

enactment of the necessary legislation, enactment of the necessary legislation,

including penal legislation, and/or the adoption including penal legislation, and/or the adoption

of administrative measuresof administrative measures to implement the

Convention no later than the Tenth Session of the

Conference of the States Parties, scheduled for

November 2005”

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Action Plan status 12/2005Action Plan status 12/2005• Significant improvements have been made, momentum has been created

• For those States Parties still without NA and legislation:– End of 2005 (preferably): provide plan with target dates to TS, final target CSP-11

– TS reports to each EC session in 2006

– November 2006: EC to consult with each SP that has not implemented and not notified steps taken –aim: take measures to redress the situation

– Final review by CSP-11 (December 2006) – decide on any appropriate measures to be taken, if necessary, to ensure full implementation

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Education, codes of conductEducation, codes of conduct

First CWC Review Conference:

“… noted that a valuable aspect of national

implementation measures involves ensuring that

the chemical industry, the scientific and scientific and

technological communitiestechnological communities, the armed forces of

the States Parties, and the public at large are are

aware of and knowledgeable about the aware of and knowledgeable about the

prohibitions and requirements of the prohibitions and requirements of the

ConventionConvention.”

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Education and codes (2)Education and codes (2)

• Joint project with IUPAC on:– How to integrate CWC requirements into professional codes of ethics/conduct

– How to integrate CWC awareness and knowledge about its implementation into chemistry education

• Workshop in Oxford, UK, in July 2005 developed a project proposal and other follow-up recommendations (report will be published by IUPAC soon)

• Educational material is being developed, pilot tests are way

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Oxford workshop July 2005Oxford workshop July 2005

● Co-organised by OPCW and IUPAC

● Few chemists know about the CWC

● Need to raise awareness

● Stress beneficial uses of chemistry

Outcome:● IUPAC-OPCW co-funded educational project to inform chemists about CWC and raise awareness of multiple uses of chemicals

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Objectives of the projectObjectives of the project

To prepare educational material for use by

university and high school teachers of

chemistry.

Materials will equip them to teach/run

workshops on multiple uses of chemistry

and need for CWC.

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To dateTo date

4 papers in English/Russian, more are expected

� Multiple uses of chemicals (Mahaffy)

� Chemicals – Good and Bad (Becker/Trapp)

� Toxicology of chemical warfare agents (Hay)

� The prevention of chemical weapons:

What role for codes of conduct? (Rappert)

Still to come:

� Case study on thiodiglycol (Matthews)

� Suspect chemical purchases (Robson)

� Additional case studies (t.b.d.)

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Moscow workshop 30Moscow workshop 30thth October 2005October 2005

Conference – Chemical Education:

Responsible Stewardship

Participants: 5 IUPAC subgroup members

1 OPCW

26 university professors/

lecturers/high school

teachers/chemistry students

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Moscow workshop (2)Moscow workshop (2)

Key outcomes:

● Multiple use of chemicals – opens up field for discussion – ideas for education

● Ethics responsibility of all

● Students/teachers – all should know what the law allows

● Make school curricula more interesting and relevant – multiple use issues do this, and do this in universities too

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Moscow workshop (3)Moscow workshop (3)

Key outcomes cont’d:

● Chemistry needs to reflect real life

● Don’t deny information to people

● Scientists need to consider consequences

of what they do

● Have chemists swear equivalent of the

Hippocratic oath – the older the tradition

the more powerful it is

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Moscow workshop (4)Moscow workshop (4)

Key outcomes cont’d:

● Should be advisory codes and enforcement codes – drawn up by professional scientists who can disbar members

● Chemists should ‘cause no harm’

● Widespread application of codes to cover researchers (pure and applied), industry, NGOs and state organisations

● Bridge gap between politicians and scientists

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Next stepsNext steps

● Inform National Authorities about

project (has been done at NA day,

November 2005)

● Modify teaching material in light of

feedback

● Add more multiple-use topics

● Run next workshop, Seoul (Republic of

Korea) August 2006

● Post material on IUPAC website

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Thank you!Thank you!