By Zia Khan/Staff reporter

 

Qatar will this year introduce amendments to a key law dealing with the chemical weapons control to make sure all government agencies overseeing the import of prohibited substances have clearer and well-defined roles and responsibilities.

“We are very particular about our control mechanism and we are going to tighten them within this year,” said Hassan Saleh al-Nesf, vice chairman of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons (NCPW).

Talking to Gulf Times yesterday on the sidelines of a two-day training course for customs officials from across the Gulf region, al-Nesf said amendments to Law 17 of 2007 that dealt with the import of classified stuff were under consideration of a ministerial committee.

The 11-article legislation that was approved on July 30, 2007 came as a continuation of Qatar’s ratification of the international convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical, according to the official gazette.

Al-Nesf hoped the amendment would be finalised  this  year.

The amended mechanism, he explained, would introduce a new set of rules for issuing licence to those companies which want to import chemicals that are normally used for industrial purposes but can be misused for “lethal” activities as well.

He did not, however, give further details of how the import would be controlled or monitored.

The NCPW vice chairman said changes to law would help in elaborating the roles of various ministries, including interior, trade, customs, environment, industry and power and energy.

Under the current mechanism, experts said the roles of the ministry were overlapping in most cases, at time creating confusion in the implementation of laws.

Hassan Saleh said the amendment would remove all the confusion and give different official agencies well-defined roles to be played. “With this, I think Qatar is going to have the best control regime in the world,” he added.

The move came amid fears either falling regimes in the region can use chemical weapons against rebels or they can end up in the hands of terrorists.

By playing a leading role in chalking out and implementing control mechanisms, Qatar is helping the region in subsiding these fears.

One of the things that the new amendment would make binding on the government, al-Nesf said, was to create awareness among the masses about the use of chemicals vital for industries but prone to misuse.

Already, he added, the NCPW was collaborating with various educational institutions to create awareness among students about the issue. 

He recalled the opening of a training centre in Doha last December for officials and other stakeholders from across the region.

“We plan to turn that initiative into an excellence…and hope it will become a facility for people from all over the Asian continent,” he said.