Swiss becomes first woman to head chemical weapons body 

A Swiss diplomat, Sabrina Dallafior is taking over as director-general of the OPCW in July 2026 Illustration: Kai Reusser Images: OPCW/Freepik

Swiss ambassador Sabrina Dallafior will take the helm of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as global tensions and technological developments threaten to undermine progress in eliminating stockpiles of chemical weapons.  

After 25 years as a Swiss diplomat, Sabrina Dallafior  is taking over as director-general of the OPCWExternal link in July, after more than a decade in which men, women and children from Syria to Ukraine and Britain to Malaysia have been increasingly targeted with often indiscriminate use of deadly toxins. 

She will have to deal with risks of proliferation from rogue states and terror groups gaining access to technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence (AI). 

That’s on top of weakening support for the international agencies that contained conflict after the Second World War as the United States, China and Russia jostle for global influence.

A team of Chinese Abandoned Chemical Weapons (ACW) experts excavate and remove the chemical bombs from a site, which is opposite a Chinese middle school in Mudanjiang, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province 05 July 2006. AFP

A previous three-year stint as ambassador to the UN-linked Conference on Disarmament in Geneva would provide essential experience for the job, the Swiss government said.

“Her selection from a pool of qualified candidates highlights Ambassador Dallafior’s merit, and her recognised expertise in arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation,” Jonas Montani, a foreign ministry spokesperson, told Swissinfo. 

What was the chemical weapons agency set up to do? 

The OPCW was created in 1997 to oversee implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, adopted in Paris four years earlier. It banned development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons. 

The Convention has been ratified by 193 nations, with only North Korea, Egypt and South Sudan not signing, and Israel signing without ratifying, a requirement for the treaty to become legally binding. 

The organisation, while not a United Nations agency, works closely with the UN and conducts round-the-clock inspections at weapons destruction sites, investigates suspected attacks and can send inspectors or experts to any signatory country. 

The body was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for helping eliminate stockpiles, partly because of its work during the Syrian civil war in which thousands of civilians have been killed in repeated attacks by its government, as well as by jihadist terrorists. 

The OPCW is neither a court nor a prosecutor. It seeks to establish responsibility but does not issue verdicts. 

Reports are forwardedExternal link to the United Nations Security Council and may serve as a basis for resolutions, investigations and international pressure. States use its findings in preparing punitive sanctions. 

What’s the background of the new director general? 

Born in the northern Swiss city of Basel, Dallafior studied Eastern European history and Russian studies before joining the diplomatic service in 2000.  

Her career has taken her from the Swiss missions to the European Union and NATO military alliance in Brussels to senior roles in Bern focused on multilateral security policy. Before her latest appointment, she was Switzerland’s ambassador to Finland. 

“I will accord the highest importance to upholding the norm against chemical weapons,” she said in the statementExternal link announcing her appointment, adding that its “long-term sustainability” must be ensured by investigating all credible allegations. 

The appointment of Dallafior to the head of a major international organisation represents a success for Swiss diplomacy.

Filling such positions with Swiss politicians or diplomats is a strategic objective of the foreign ministry, aimed at safeguarding Swiss interests and enabling Switzerland to help shape international policy.

In addition, Switzerland is home to the Spiez Laboratory,External link a world-leading specialist institution that is part of the network of OPCW-designated laboratories. 

What attacks has the agency worked on and what has it achieved? 

Syria was the most prominent location of chemical weapons attacks during the 2010s as President Bashar al-Assad, supported by Russia, clung to power following so-called Arab Spring protests that spread across the Middle East and North Africa. 

Even after Assad’s ousting in 2024, more than 100 chemical weapons sites were believed to remain in the country, much higher than prior estimates, the OPCW saidExternal link last year. 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, both Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of using chemical weapons.

At Ukraine’s request, the OPCW provided technical and protective assistance and confirmed the use of banned chemical substances on the battlefield in reports released in 2024 and 2025. 

The organisation has also been involved in probes into high-profile political poisonings, including the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020 and an attack on former spy Sergei SkripalExternal link and his daughter in the UK in 2018. Britain and independent investigators produced evidence of the involvement of Russian military intelligence in the assassination attempt, which Moscow denied. 

After the Skripal case, and despite opposition from Russia, OPCW member countries agreed to expand the agency’s mandateExternal link to allow it to document responsibility for use of chemical weapons. Previously inspectors were only permitted to investigate suspected attacks, and identify toxins, without saying who carried them out.

Perhaps the organisation’s greatest success to date was its announcementExternal link in 2023 that it had verified the destruction of all the world’s “declared” chemical stockpiles, or those that member nations had admitted to holding. 

How is the chemical weapons ban being undermined?  

Despite such achievements, accusations remain that countries are still using banned substances against foreign enemies, as well as their own populations.  
 
Authorities in Georgia used a First World War-era poison against protestors in the capital, Tbilisi, the BBC reportedExternal link in December, citing a peer-reviewed study accepted for publication by Toxicology Reports, an international journal. 

The government of Iran is also among those accused of using toxins, according to a reportExternal link by the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition, a network of NGOs that partnersExternal link with the OPCW to support treaty objectives. 

The regime has used live munitions against mass protests in recent months, with state television saying more than 3,000 have died. Others estimate the figure at as much as ten times higherExternal link. 

While Dallafior has stressed that protecting the norm against use of chemical weapons is her top priority, institutions such as Britain’s Ministry of DefenceExternal link and InterpolExternal link have warned that it is at risk of being eroded. 

“The taboo against chemicals weapons use has been degraded in the past decade,” Natasha Hall, a senior associate for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a researchExternal link report in October 2024 after interviewing US and allied government officials, members of the OPCW and other experts in the field. “Actors would likely choose a gradual approach to test the limits of international condemnation,” she said. 

“Escalating tensions between the United States and Russia, coupled with fractures in the international community, challenge existing mechanisms for chemicals weapons control and accountability,” Hall added in the report for the Washington thinktank. 

A further threat comes from the spread of advanced computing, drone technology and so-called dual-use chemicals that can be utilised for civilian or military purposes. 

The OPCW’s current director-general, Fernando Arias, saidExternal link in November that the body was increasingly focused on how to ensure that technological advances reinforced rather than undermined its verification efforts and oversight of the weapons convention. 

“Emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and the evolution of dual-use chemicals, are further complicating detection and enforcement,” said Jonas Montani at the Swiss foreign ministry. “All of this is taking place against a backdrop of growing geopolitical tensions, where trust between states is weakening and collective security mechanisms are being put to the test.” 

Edited by Tony Barrett/vm/ts