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14 Aust. YBIL 157 (1992)
Some Australian Efforts to Promote Chemical Weapons Non-Proliferation and Disarmament

handle is hein.journals/ayil14 and id is 163 raw text is: Some Australian Efforts to Promote Chemical
Weapons Non-Proliferation and Disarmament
Timothy L H McCormack*
Introduction
On 11-13 January 1993 representatives of 130 States participated in a
ceremony in Paris to sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the
Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons.1 The
signing ceremony marked the culmination of more than 20 years of
discussions and at least nine years of detailed negotiations. This protracted
negotiation process had become so stagnant in recent years that many were
convinced there would never be final agreement on an effective Chemical
Weapons Convention.
In their speeches prior to signing the Convention several representatives
singled out Australia for particular praise because of a major initiative by
Australia in the context of the Chemical Weapons Convention negotiations
early in 1992.2 The Secretary-General of the United Nations, for example,
stated that:
Je pense 4galement au r6le qu'a eu le Gouvernement australien dans
l'intensification des ndgociations sur la Convention.3
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne. The author wishes to
thank Mr Christos Moraitis of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Canberra; Mr Robert Mathews of the Materials Research Laboratories,
Department of Defence, Melbourne; Professor Julian Perry Robinson of the
Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex; Surgeon Captain John
Parkes of the Department of Defence's Directorate of Occupational Health and
Safety and Naval Medicine, Canberra; and Professor Ivan Shearer, Challis
Professor of International Law, University of Sydney, for their helpful comments
and information for the preparation of this paper.
1    Doc No CD/1170 (1992). In July 1993 a further 16 States had become signatories
to the Convention and four instruments of ratification have already been received
by the UN Secretary-General.
2    See, for example, speeches by Dr Klaus Kinkel, German Minister for Foreign
Affairs; Mr Michio Watanabe, Japanese Foreign Minister; Dr HP Kooijmans,
Dutch Foreign Minister; Mr Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru; and by
representatives of Mauritius, Chile and the Cook Islands.
3    Discours de M Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secr6taire Gdniral des Nations Unies,
prononcd lors de la cdrdmonie d'ouverture &i la signature de la Convention sur
les armes chimiques, Paris, 13 January 1993. Text provided by the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra.

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