20 Years of the Chemical Weapons Convention

On 29th of April 1997 the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction was entered into force. This act is one of the key international documents in the area of non-proliferation of weapon of mass destruction. In this paper we report on (i) the genesis of this document, meaning historical background of use of chemical weapons and subsequent attempts of their prohibition, (ii) development of Organization of prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) and its tasks, which is defined by the Convention, (iii) implementation of this international law to Czech legal system and (iv) activities of Czech National Authority (State Office for Nuclear Safety) in connection with the obligation originated from the Convention or OPCW.