Biological & Chemical Weapons

We are not only committed to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons, but are also playing an active role towards eliminating all categories of weapons of mass destruction. Achieving a world free from the threat of all weapons of mass destruction is a longstanding priority of Irish foreign policy.

Ireland has been a party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) since their entry into force in 1975 and 1997 respectively.

Each of these two conventions aims at eliminating an entire category of weapons from global arsenals. Meetings related to the BWC take place regularly in Geneva, which is also home to the Convention’s Implementation Support Unit. Meetings related to the CWC take place in The Hague, where the CWC’s implementing body, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is based.