DPS Krubally made these remarks yesterday at the Senegambia Beach Hotel on behalf of the secretary of state for the Interior at the official opening of a two day legal workshop for Central and West Africa, organised by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

According to him, it is important as host country, to enlighten the participants on The Gambia's state of compliance with operative paragraphs 2 and 3 of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, which precisely requires the adoption and enforcing of effective measures to prohibit any non-state actors to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer or use chemical or biological weapons, while establishing domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

"The pursuit of the foregoing entails the enactment of legislation that domesticates the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and in this regard, the National Authority, through collaboration and consultation with other key players in the global effort to prohibit the production and use of chemical weapons bill", DPS Krubally revealed.

He said bilateral consultations will be held in parallel with the workshop, which is aimed at pinpointing areas of cooperation between the National Authority and the OPCW.

DPS Kruablly then urged delegates to be mindful of the important process that the National Authority is going through and offer the required assistance.For his part, Bernard Amoh, senior planning officer at the Implementation Support Branch in Netherlands said the Chemical Weapons Convention is not a self-executing document and therefore, requires that all state parties take conscious steps to fulfill all its requirements.

He said "it is therefore imperative that National Authorities take the lead to ensure the early adoption of national implementing legislation and the regulations and rules that are required to enforce it. Implementation of the convention requires enhanced cooperation-both at the regional and sub-regional levels and recognising this, the OPCW signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Union in 2006 to further promote the CWC in Africa.

Where appropriate the implementation of the CWC may be undertaken within the framework of sub-regional organisations such as ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, EAC, ECCAS, IGAD and UMA among others, as they are in a position to provide the needed institutional support and forster sub-regional cooperation and the Technical Secretariat is presently engaged in promoting this".

Recognising the crucial role that the National Authorities play and to provide them with the capacity required to undertake their roles effectively, Mr Amoh went on to state that the technical secretariat regularly organises courses and training programmes under the auspices of the International Cooperation and Assistance Division (ICA). He concluded by outlining the importance of the CWC to Africa and its reasons.