The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had obtained information about the planned memorandum between the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN-facilitated international mechanism to facilitate the investigation of crimes against international law in Syria, and believes that the document was drafted with violations and would be contrary to the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the OPCW’s principles of confidentiality.
According to the ministry’s information, a “memorandum of understanding” is being prepared to determine parameters of interaction between the OPCW and the “International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism” for investigation formed in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 71/248 to facilitate investigations into persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law in Syria since March 2011.
“The very fact of the appearance of this document and its content raises a number of serious questions. It is obvious that it was compiled with numerous violations, without the corresponding powers and, in fact, on the verge of arbitrariness on the part of its authors,” the ministry said.
In fact, the document is an international treaty containing legally binding provisions affecting OPCW’s key functions and obligations.
“However, the director-general of the OPCW Technical Secretariat can only conclude such agreements only if there is an appropriate instruction from the member states. Such instruction has not been given,” it stressed.
The memorandum directly violates the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in terms of confidentiality, as well as the OPCW confidentiality policy, since it implies access for the “mechanism,” and subsequently third parties, to information of interest.
It should not be overlooked that the “mechanism” 71/248 is legally invalid, since it was created by the UN General Assembly in excess of its powers and lacks international legal personality to enter into contractual relations, the ministry noted.
Moscow has brought its principal concerns on the issue to the attention of the Director-General of the OPCW Technical Secretariat Fernando Arias and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it added, saying it expects that the officials would accordingly reconsider their position regarding the signing of the memorandum.
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