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1 1 (March 5, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govecnh0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ~.Research Service Resurgence of Chemical Weapons Use: Issues for Congress Updated March 5, 2021 With increasing numbers of incidents, the use of chemical weapons (CW) has become a growing international concern two decades after the international community decided to ban them under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Syrian government forces have used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine bombs dozens of times since 2013 in that country's civil war. The Islamic State used mustard gas in northern Iraq in 2015 and 2016. North Korean agents used the nerve agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of the North Korean leader, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February 2017. Russian agents used the Soviet-developed Novichok-class nerve agent in an attempted assassination of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom in March 2018. Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny survived an August 2020 Novichok-class nerve agent poisoning, also likely perpetrated by Russian intelligence agents, according to the State Department. Prior to the Syrian civil war, there had been no major recent use of chemical weapons since the 1995 terror attack by the Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo and by Iraq in the 1980s during its war with Iran. Some argue that the lack of accountability for such incidents undermines the international norm against chemical weapons. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), originally established to oversee the destruction of chemical weapons stocks under the CWC and promote the safe and peaceful use of chemicals, now has additional challenges and responsibilities. States may request OPCW assistance in investigating cases of CW use. CWC states may also request challenge inspections at facilities in member states suspected to be in violation of the convention. To date, the CWC challenge inspection provision has never been invoked. After the use of nerve agent on its territory, the UK called for a Special Session of the OPCW Executive Council in June 2018 to highlight the gravity of chemical weapons use and to call for giving investigators the mandate to attribute an attack when possible. CWC member states approved a decision that granted the OPCW the added authority to attribute chemical attacks under investigation. In addition, the CWC states in November 2019 adopted two decisions that amended Schedule 1 of the CWC's Annex on Chemicals, adding two classes of nerve agents developed during the Cold War-the Novichok class of nerve agents as well as some carbamate compounds to the schedule, subjecting them to the CWC's declaration requirements and other restrictions. Use of Novichok and carbamate compounds as a weapon was already prohibited under the CWC. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN10936 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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