Why are treaty members required to submit data to the international inspectorate?
Initial and annual data declarations form the basis upon which the international inspectorate monitors the destruction of chemical weapons and associated production facilities, guards against the diversion of commercial dual-use chemicals to prohibited chemical weapons production, and oversees permitted activities. Inspectors spend most of their time correlating activities at declared sites with the data submitted about them. If inspectors find anomalies between the declared data and activities at a site, further investigation could follow. The data submitted helps the Technical Secretariat focus its inspections on “high risk” sites, such as a weapons storage facility or a commercial plant that uses large quantities of Schedule 2 chemicals. The requirement for states to provide this data also means that states share the burden of verification with the international inspectorate. States must provide accurate data about their military and commercial activities on a timely basis in order
