CMA and CWC Treaty Compliance
The CMA director acts as the United States Army Implementing Agent for executing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Treaty.
In accordance with the CWC, CMA carries out Army Regulation 525-92, which states that CMA’s Center for Treaty Implementation
and Compliance (CTIC) manages implementation and compliance activities.
Located at CMA Headquarters at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, CTIC is part of a U.S. host team for storage, Schedule 1 and
destruction inspections that oversees CWC compliance. CTIC prepares initial visits and final engineering reviews by the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the international organization headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, that verifies
CWC implementation.
CTIC is also responsible for all notifications, reports and briefings submitted to the OPCW Technical Secretariat, and assists Army
sites with refuting allegations during challenge inspections. The United States is responsible for hosting ambassador-level visits
for the OPCW Executive Council for an overview of the destruction programs.
CWC Background
On April 29, 1997, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on
Their Destruction, known as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), entered into force. At that time, the United States and 86 other
nations became the first countries to sign and ratify the CWC. In doing so, the United States agreed to destroy all their chemical
weapons and former chemical weapons production facilities and to abide by prohibitions from development, use, production and acquisition
of chemical weapons. As of 2016, more than 192 nations have ratified the CWC.
The CWC prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons. The United States is a State Party
to the CWC. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international organization headquartered in The Hague,
Netherlands, oversees Convention implementation.
- Developing, producing, acquiring, retaining or transferring chemical weapons
- Using chemical weapons
- Engaging in any military preparations to use chemical weapons and
- Assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone, in any way, to engage in any activity prohibited under the Convention
The CWC also requires States Parties with chemical weapons or chemical weapons production facilities to destroy them
in an environmentally safe manner. It forbids disposal by open pit burning, land burial or dumping in any water body.