The Government of South Africa and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will host the third regional assistance-and-protection course for African States Parties, which will take place from 21 to 25 May 2007 in Tshwane, South Africa.

The course will be jointly organised by the Government of South Africa and the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW and will provide training to up to 25 participants from the region on how to plan for and build a support team for civilian protection and defence, for rescue and decontamination operations in contaminated areas, and for appropriate responses and countermeasures in the event of incidents involving chemical-warfare agents or toxic chemicals. The course will also give an overview of the kinds of assistance the OPCW, the host country, and other States Parties in Africa can provide, and will also help participating States Parties to establish a basic chemical weapons-protection capability that will directly benefit their civilian populations.

The course will offer a basic introduction to the use of individual and collective protective equipment, to monitoring, detection, and decontamination, and to sampling techniques. It will also facilitate the exchange of information and experiences regarding the implementation of Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention and provide a forum for States Parties to discuss how they can cooperate in the future and what further offers they might make to the OPCW under that Article. The course will conclude with a practical emergency-response exercise.

State Parties wishing to obtain more information can download more information from the following link: www.opcw.org

Participants at last year's course in protective gear

Participants taken through a simulation exercise