{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2015-2215/annex/division-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2015-2215/annex/division-1.json",
  "legislation": "eudn/2015/2215",
  "legislation_title": "Council Decision (CFSP) 2015/2215 of 30 November 2015 in support of UNSCR 2235 (2015), establishing an OPCW-UN joint investigative mechanism to identify the perpetrators of chemical attacks in the Syrian Arab Republic",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2015-2215",
  "path": "annex/division/1",
  "kind": "division",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "General framework and objectives",
  "text": "In April 2014, at the peak of the operation to remove and destroy Syria's chemical weapons, a number of serious allegations were made regarding the use of chlorine as a weapon against civilians. The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) established an OPCW fact-finding mission (FFM) to look into these allegations. His decision was supported by the OPCW Executive Council and the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General pledged his assistance.\nA team comprising OPCW and UN personnel attempted in May 2014 to conduct an on-site investigation in one of the villages reportedly attacked with chlorine. While crossing a buffer zone between the areas controlled by the Syrian government and those controlled by the opposition, the team came under armed attack and had to abort the mission. The FFM nonetheless continued its work and interviewed eyewitnesses, treating physicians, first responders and victims in a safe location outside Syria. Based on this work, the FFM concluded with a high degree of confidence that chlorine, either pure or in mixture, had indeed been used as a weapon in three villages in northern Syria.\nThe OPCW Executive Council, in its decision EC-M-48/DEC.1 adopted on 4 February 2015, expressed serious concern regarding the findings of the FFM and reaffirmed its condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of the use of chemical weapons by anyone in any circumstances. The OPCW Executive Council expressed further support for the continuation of the work of the FFM, in particular by studying all available information relating to allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, including information provided by the Syrian Arab Republic as well as by others. This was followed by the adoption on 6 March 2015 of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2209 (2015), in which the UN Security Council endorsed the OPCW Executive Council decision and called for those responsible for such attacks to be held accountable.\nFollowing up on that Resolution, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted, on 7 August 2015, UNSCR 2235 (2015), condemning any use of toxic chemicals, such as chlorine, as a chemical weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic and expressing its determination to identify those responsible for such acts. In this regard, the UN Security Council recalled the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare; the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC); and UNSCRs 1540 (2004), 2118 (2013) and 2209 (2015). The UN Security Council established for a period of one year, with the possibility of future extension if it deems it necessary, an OPCW-UN joint investigative mechanism (JIM) to identify to the greatest extent feasible individuals, entities, groups or governments who were perpetrators, organisers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical, as weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, where the OPCW FFM determines or has determined that a specific incident in the Syrian Arab Republic involved or likely involved the use of chemicals, including chlorine or any other toxic chemical, as weapons. That mechanism is currently being established.\nFor this purpose, the Union should support OPCW and the JIM in their respective tasks under UNSCR 2235 (2015) and the OPCW Executive Council decision EC-M-48/DEC.1, as well as the CWC.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2015/2215/annex/division/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:14:09.009836+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}