International support for Chemical Weapons Convention

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, comprising national parliaments from across the world, has called on its 163 members to condemn the use of chemical weapons and to demand their respective governments sign and ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Adopted at the closing of its three-day 129th Assembly in Geneva in October, an emergency IPU resolution demanded that all States not yet party to the Convention accede to or ratify it as a matter of urgency and without any preconditions. An Australian parliamentary delegation led by Senate President John Hogg (Qld) and including Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, NSW), representing the Speaker, and Senator Ursula Stephens (NSW) participated in the assembly.