Masum Billah
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded its 2013 Peace Prize to a modest and little-known United Nations-backed organisation that has attracted sudden attention with a mission to ensure that Syria's stocks of chemical weapons are eradicated. "We were aware that our work silently but surely was contributing to peace in the world," Ahmet Uzumcu, the director general of the organisation, told reporters at its headquarters in The Hague after the award was announced. He said, "The last few weeks have brought this to the fore. The entire international community has been made aware of our work."
Among diplomats, the prize was seen as the high point of a startling rise to prominence for an organisation that had worked in relative obscurity. Some Syrians, however, took strong exception to the idea of lauding chemical weapons watchdogs when the bulk of the more than 100,000 deaths in Syria's 31-month-old conflict have been caused by conventional weapons, like air strikes and artillery and rocket fire.
It was the second successive year that the Nobel panel had chosen an organisation. The European Union won the 2012 Nobel Peace prize. "O.P.C.W. (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) has worked tirelessly to rid the world of chemical weapons, and the organisation is a deserved winner of the Nobel Peace Prize," Mr. Gorbachev said in a statement issued by Green Cross International, an advocacy group based in Geneva that he founded. Angela Kane, the top United Nations disarmament official, who worked with the watchdog organisation to lead an investigation into the August 21 attack and other suspected uses of chemical weapons in Syria, said in a statement, "If he were alive today, Alfred Nobel would be gratified indeed that his committee has once again recognised disarmament for its great benefit to humanity."
There were 259 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013. 50 of these are organisations. 259 is the highest number of candidates ever. The previous record was 241 in 2011.
Teenager Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, who is standing up for women who seek education, survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012. The Talibans have renewed their threats against her. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Mukwege of Democratic Republic of Congo, a gynecological surgeon, who has operated on and repaired the insides of many Congolese women victims of rape, was a formidable candidate for the Prize. Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was a U.S. military analyst who leaked the largest cache of US government documents to Wikileaks, was also included in the list.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon's mission is to act as a watchdog in carrying out the Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into force in 1997 with four aims such as (i) to destroy all chemical weapons under international verification, (ii) to prevent the creation of new chemical weapons, (iii) to help countries protect themselves against chemical attack, and (iv) to foster international cooperation in the peaceful use of chemistry. Since its inception, the organisation has sent experts to carry out 5,000 inspections in 86 countries, working discreetly - almost shunning publicity - with the small number of signatory countries that acknowledge possessing chemical weapons. Four countries besides Syria have not yet signed or ratified the treaty: Angola, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan. Israel and Myanmar have signed the treaty, but their governments have not ratified it.
Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, said: "The OPCW has not received the prize primarily for its work in Syria. It is because of its long-standing efforts to eliminate chemical weapons and that we are now about to reach the goal and do away with a whole category of weapons of mass destruction. That would be a great event in history, if we can achieve that."
"I truly hope that this award will help broader efforts to achieve peace in that country (Syria) and ease the suffering of its people," Uzumcu said. He added, "events in Syria have been a tragic reminder that there remains much work yet to be done."
"The recognition that the Peace Prize brings will spur us to untiring effort, even stronger commitment and greater dedication," U.S. President Barack Obama said congratulating OPCW. A White House statement said: "This award honours those who make it their life's work to advance this vital goal...Today's award recognises that commitment, and reinforces the trust and confidence the world has placed in the OPCW, Director-General Ahmed Uzumcu, and the courageous OPCW experts and inspectors taking on the unprecedented challenge of eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program."
The Geneva Convention, adopted in 1925, prohibits the use of chemical weapons. But during the World War II, the Nazi dictatorship under Adolf Hitler employed them to extinguish the lives of millions of concentration camp inmates in the Holocaust.
The Geneva Convention has left some loopholes open, though, the Norwegian committee said. It does not prohibit the production and storage of chemical weapons. But in 1997, an international convention banning production and storage was instituted.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is an independent implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international arms control treaty. The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in April 1997, at which point 87 states had ratified it, and the work of the OPCW to implement its provisions began at that point.
According to the treaty's wording, signatories are "determined for the sake of all mankind, to exclude completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons, through the implementation of the provisions of this Convention." Sixteen years later, more than one hundred additional states have ratified the treaty. In September, Syria became the latest nation to ask to join the convention. It entered into force in Syria on October 14, when it became the 190th member state.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the OPCW, saying it has "greatly strengthened the rule of law in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation."
Thorbjoern Jagland said in an interview that the prize was a message to all the countries that haven't ratified the convention and to those that haven't honoured their obligations, such as the U.S. and Russia.
All want to see this planet absolutely free from chemical weapons. The Nobel Committee's decision is timely and right one indeed.
The writer is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program
and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA).
[email protected]
Chemical weapons watchdog wins Nobel Peace Prize 2013: (L-R) Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) Malik Ellahi, political adviser to Director General Ahmet Uzumcu, External Relations Director and team leader Wang Ju and Declaration 
