In pursuit of comprehensive chemical security and to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) across the African continent, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) needs to evaluate its relationship with civil society organisations and enhance cooperation.

Civil society organisations have been key players in ensuring CWC universalisation and can serve as the anchor between national chemical security measures and CWC implementation efforts. On the African continent, the Institute for Security Studies, a civil society organisation, encouraged Angola, among others, to ratify and implement the CWC through advocacy, awareness raising, and technical assistance to ensure the universalisation of the CWC. In addition, the African Center for Science and International Security has been actively championing the universalisation and implementation of the CWC by conducting capacity-building events and stakeholder mapping initiatives to inform national authorities and other stakeholders.

Yet civil society organisations from the global south are still marginalised due to financial constraints, as well as a lack of openness and structured dialogue by the OPCW. Civil society organisations’ voices need to be amplified to strengthen the collective chemical security discourse.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Africa

Part of the OPCW’s success has been its efforts to focus on avoiding the reemergence of chemical weapons across the globe and it has been involved in the CWC implementation project in Africa. Consistent with the United Nations Resolution 1540, which seeks to combat and prevent non-state actors from seizing, developing and acquiring any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, the OPCW Secretariat activities have been complementing other related projects conducted on the continent by the European Union CBRN Center of Excellence and Global Partnership.

The OPCW has been working with various stakeholders to conduct its activities, including but not limited to respective African government departments and civil society organisations. The 6^th phase of the OPCW program has targeted the African continent to address the existing implementation challenges as noted by African states and civil society organisations. This includes insufficient national legislation to ensure universalisation of the CWC, a lack of urgency and political will to prioritise the CWC, and a capacity deficit characterised by a lack of technical expertise, an absence of efficient border control and detection mechanisms, and a lack of response and protection capacities in the event of a chemical emergency.

While acknowledging the OPCW’s current and past efforts to ensure chemical security and impede any form of reemergence of chemical weapons, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed within the African landscape. Notably, the remaining countries impeding the universalisation of the CWC on the continent, Egypt and South Sudan have neither signed nor ratified the CWC.

One of the issues with Egypt is its continued security deadlock with Israel in pursuit of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone in the Middle East. Egypt is believed to stall CWC accession and hold chemical weapons capability as a strategic counterbalance against Israel, a nuclear weapons possessor not party to the NPT but a CWC signatory state unlike Egypt. South Sudan’s case is different; despite the political instability and armed violence that has been experienced in the country, the existing government has made commendable steps towards ratification of the CWC. At the OPCW’s conference of state parties in November, South Sudan announced its commitment to follow accession procedures and highlighted that the process had reached the legislative assembly following completion by cabinet.

Addressing Egypt and South Sudan specifically, the OPCW can leverage the position that can be assumed by civil society organisations to contextualise and unpack the security issues of the states in question while promoting chemical security through ratification. Civil society organisations have a unique opportunity to liaise with government officials to understand their outlook on national interests and security in conjunction with OPCW’s global chemical security objectives. Utilising the unique position of civil society organisations to gather such information can be useful in galvanising nation-specific tailored engagement and assistance to promote CWC universalisation. In the case of South Sudan, civil society organisations can achieve this by raising awareness about delivering and unpacking the security concerns and benefits accompanied with implementing CWC amid armed conflict. For Egypt, civil society organisations can promote potential pathways for confidence building essential to break the existing security deadlock and recommend policy options that safeguards both Egypt and Israel’s security interests while upholding the CWC.

The role of civil society and global south participation

A sustained relationship with civil society to ensure the implementation of the CWC in Africa creates room for shared responsibility governance. In the context of OPCW cooperation with civil society organisations, the OPCW can entirely focus on reinforcing the CWC norms while civil society can also assist national implementation efforts. Promoting operational implementation efforts of the CWC, civil society organisations can offer creativity and flexibility, which are essential in addressing government departments in countries that often do not prioritise the CWC and lack the urgency to domesticate the legal instrument. Within the African chemical security landscape, delegation of responsibility can ensure tangible outcomes within a limited period.

In addition, the intellectual input from civil society organisations should not be underestimated. Due to their nature, these organisations can mobilise all stakeholders, including grassroots actors normally overlooked in the implementation process yet fundamental for CWC’s domestication. Civil society organisations are uniquely positioned to link local knowledge and ideas into CWC implementation efforts, generating innovative and nuanced ideas that contextualise the CWC within the African security landscape. For example, in their ‘Second African Regional Workshop on Strengthening the NPT Regime: Priorities for the 2022 Review Conference’, the African Center for Science and International Security in collaboration with the Nuclear Threat Initiative, invited various grassroots stakeholders, including academia and the private sector, which provided valuable insights on setting national priorities and considerations for states at the NPT Review Conference that reflects the needs of all stakeholders on the ground.

Challenges faced by global south civil societies

The existing OPCW machinery has been working to improve the involvement of various actors at the OPCW conference of state parties. However, non-governmental organisations from the global south still have limited representation and participation. The OPCW’s mechanism of only giving access to non-governmental organisation applications authorised and hand-picked by the Secretariat and state parties perpetuates the marginalisation of civil society organisations. Not all state parties in the general committee have noble intentions in this selection process. The case of Syria, which objected to the access of non-governmental organisations to the conference of state parties amid concerns about Damascus’ continued chemical weapons ability, is a testament to this issue. The lack of political will and cooperation of state parties should not impede the participation of non-governmental organisations from these respective states.

In addition, over the years, the OPCW has made a concerted effort to engage African countries through the ‘Africa Programme’ to respond to peculiar African needs and promote the implementation of the CWC. However, the OPCW is still not sufficiently engaging civil society organisations. The limited engagement with African civil society organisations can be perceived as tokenism consultations rather than forging substantive structures to ensure a continuous engagement in pursuit of global chemical security.

Civil society organisations from the global south often face financial constraints due to limited resources impeding their efforts to forge meaningful participation. Addressing this issue, the CWC Coalition has been an active community coordinating and supporting civil society organisations and representatives from the global south with logistical support to attend events, providing valuable information, and amplifying their work at the conference of state parties.

Notwithstanding the efforts of OPCW to promote civil society participation, especially from the global south, there is still room to improve their involvement in its implementation efforts in Africa. Similar to the existing research funding mechanism that is offered by the OPCW Secretariat to institutions or research projects in OPCW member states, OPCW state parties can establish a fund tailored specifically to assist civil society organisations. To bypass the continued marginalisation of some civil society organisations due to the ‘pick and choose’ mechanism of the Secretariat, state parties should establish a selecting committee that is an equitable reflection of all member states and consult external experts. The positions within the committee should be subject to rotation. In addition, the Secretariat, like the mechanism for research project funding should not assume any role in the selection process except for its mandate related to the budget of the fund.

Conclusion

Enhancing the cooperation of OPCW and civil society organisations in Africa is a pressing issue. The proliferation of political insecurity and armed conflicts in the region attest to the urgency of ensuring comprehensive CWC national implementation. Implementing the CWC in Africa is one of the pathways to sustaining global chemical security, strengthening the CWC security standards, and avoiding the reemergence of chemical weapons. The OPCW needs to prioritise establishing a structured and sustained dialogue with civil society organisations, amplifying their voices, and supporting their projects promoting CWC ratification and implementation. Addressing the current challenges faced by civil society organisations from the global south is a first step.

The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the authors rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.

Image credit: Dr. Hubert K. Foy, African Center for Science and International Security (AFRICSIS) (Ghana), speaking at OPCW’s Fourth Review Conference Wikimedia Commons / OPCW / B2Belgium