Brennan Center for Justice

As inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons begin their inspections in Syria, they could find themselves on a collision course with the United Nations Security Council resolution that put them there in the first place.

Created in 1997, the OPCW’s job is to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that requires all countries that join to eliminate their chemical weapons stocks and related facilities. Syria is the 190th country to join the treaty; the 189th was Somalia in June. The OPCW is independent of the UN, although it is authorized to bring grave violations of the treaty to the attention of the Security Council and the General Assembly. OPCW inspectors verify treaty compliance at facilities identified by nations. Except in rare instances, they are not investigators. They don’t ferret out secret chemical weapons sites, or even actually destroy chemical weapons. They monitor and certify the process. Indeed, the Chemical Weapons Convention inspection regime is deliberately designed to protect the military and industrial secrets of the countries that join. It is far more limited than, for example, the mandate of the U.N. inspectors who oversaw the destruction of Iraq’s weapons after the first Gulf War.

Both the UN and the OPCW have adopted resolutions aimed at eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons. But there are important differences between the two, which set the stage for a conflict between what the OPCW is permitted to do and what the UN wants it to do.

....

Read the full piece on The New Republic.

This story was cross-posted with Lawfare. Faiza Patel is Co-Director of the Liberty & National Security Program at NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.