The Swedish Academy has awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as the Hague-based body is in the spotlight for its mission to oversee the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons.
Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said on Friday that the OPCW was honored “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.”
The Nobel jury also said in a statement, “Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.”
The OPCW was founded in 1997 to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which bans the use of chemical weapons and requires their destruction.
Currently, the global spotlight is on the OPCW due to its mission to supervise the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal and facilities, which should be accomplished by mid-2014 under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.
A group of nearly 30 OPCW experts along with UN logistics and security staff are working on the ground in Syria to destroy the chemical weapons stockpile in the Arab country.
Since 1997, the Hague-based body has managed to eliminate 57,000 tons of chemical arms, the majority leftovers from the Cold War now held by the United States and Russia.
The $1.25-million award will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the prize founder. The prize went to the European Union last year.