By Abdul Usman
Sir: Twenty-one member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were recently elected to the Executive Council of the organisation for the 2026-2028 term. The election was conducted during the 30th Session of the Conference of the States Parties (CSP-30). Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, and Ghana won the African seats.
The CSP oversees the implementation of the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), promotes the Convention’s objectives, and reviews compliance with the treaty.
However, accusations of bias and politicisation regarding the recent election to the Executive Council and other decision-making bodies of the OPCW have surfaced. Analysts attribute this bias to the unprecedented political pressure from the United States, Britain, France, and their allies. These nations have been reportedly campaigning against countries they dislike to ensure they are not elected to the Council.
Observers say Western countries are using political pressure to turn the technical body into a political tool by exerting pressure on participating states, organising individual and collective demarches, visiting diplomatic missions and foreign policy departments, all to ‘’convince and sometimes force’’ some states’ to vote for their chosen candidates (the Czech Republic and Northern Macedonia in 2023,
Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine in 2024).
Reports indicate that the U.S. and its allies have created a ‘‘lobby of countries subordinate to the military and political interests of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union,’’ in order to oust undesirable countries from the OPCW council.
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Earlier, in 2019, Venezuela sadly was ‘’squeezed out’’ of the Executive Council in a similar way, and in 2020, Syria lost the right to be elected to the governing and working bodies of the OPCW for political goals.
Experts point to financial and economic blackmail and threats against nations that could support states unsuitable to the West. Officials from the African Group at the OPCW called the result of the recent vote an ‘‘electoral execution,’’ and stressed that it was the result of ‘‘endless attacks by the West with unsubstantiated claims against third world countries over alleged violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The group affirms that they would work with their allies and like-minded people to restore the authority of the OPCW and preserve its neutrality and integrity. The initiative of African countries to change the voting formula in the OPCW in order to weaken the influence of the West is gaining grounds among Member States Parties.
And they believe that the accusation of voting bias in the OPCW Executive Committee concerns not just the specific result of the vote, but also the broader practice of applying political pressure on international organisations.
Abdul Usman wrote from Lokoja.
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