Section 12. Power of National Authority to call for information, etc

12. Power of National Authority to call for information, etc. —(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, the National Authority may, by general or special order, call upon a person, to furnish to that Authority periodically or as and when required any information, declaration or return concerning Toxic Chemicals or Precursors listed in any of the Schedules 1 to 3 in the Annex on Chemicals to the Convention, Chemical Weapons, Old Chemical Weapons, Abandoned Chemical Weapons, Chemical Weapons Production Facilities, riot control agents, single small-scale facility or Discrete Organic Chemicals including those Discrete Organic Chemicals containing elements of phosphorous, sulphur or fluorine with such particulars as may be specified by the National Authority. (2) No person shall, when complying with any requisition made under sub-section (1), give any information or furnish any declaration, return or statement which he knows, or has reasonable cause to believe to be false or not true in any material particular. 12. For the purposes of Article VI: (a) "Production" of a chemical means its formation through chemical reaction; (b) "Processing" of a chemical means a physical process, such as formulation, extraction and purification, in which a chemical is not converted into another chemical; (c) "Consumption" of a chemical means its conversion into another chemical via a chemical reaction. ARTICLE III DECLARATIONS 12. Each State Party undertakes to cooperate with other States Parties that request information or assistance on a bilateral basis or through the Technical Secretariat regarding methods and technologies for the safe and efficient destruction of chemical weapons. 12. Chemical weapons production facilities specified in paragraph 1 may be temporarily converted for destruction of chemical weapons in accordance with Part V, paragraphs 18 to 25, of the Verification Annex. Such a converted facility must be destroyed as soon as it is no longer in use for destruction of chemical weapons but, in any case, not later than 10 years after entry into force of this Convention. 12. Special sessions of the Conference shall be convened: - (a) When decided by the Conference; - (b) When requested by the Executive Council; - (c) When requested by any member and supported by one third of the members; or - (d) In accordance with paragraph 22 to undertake reviews of the operation of this Convention. Except in the case of sub-paragraph (d), the special session shall be convened not later than 30 days after receipt of the request by the Director-General of the Technical Secretariat, unless specified otherwise in the request. 12. With regard to an observer, the following shall apply: (a) The requesting State Party may, subject to the agreement of the inspected State Party, send a representative who may be a national either of the requesting State Party or of a third State Party, to observe the conduct of the challenge inspection; (b) The inspected State Party shall then grant access to the observer in accordance with the Verification Annex; (c) The inspected State Party shall, as a rule, accept the proposed observer, but if the inspected State Party exercises a refusal, that fact shall be recorded in the final report. 12. "Inspected State Party" means the State Party on whose territory or in any other place under its jurisdiction or control an inspection pursuant to this Convention takes place, or the State Party whose facility or area on the territory of a Host State is subject to such an inspection; it does not, however, include the State Party specified in Part II, paragraph 21 of this Annex. 12. When transiting the territory of non-inspected States Parties, the members of the inspection team shall be accorded the privileges and immunities enjoyed by diplomatic agents pursuant to Article 40, paragraph 1, of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Papers and correspondence, including records, and samples and approved equipment, carried by them, shall be accorded the privileges and immunities set forth in paragraph 11 (c) and (d). 12. The inspected State Party shall provide the necessary preparation and support for the establishment of continuous monitoring instruments and systems. 12. "Destruction of chemical weapons" means a process by which chemicals are converted in an essentially irreversible way to a form unsuitable for production of chemical weapons, and which in an irreversible manner renders munitions and other devices unusable as such. 12. The report of the Technical Secretariat shall be submitted to the Executive Council, the Territorial State Party, and to the Abandoning State Party or the State Party declared by the Territorial State Party or identified by the Technical Secretariat as having abandoned the chemical weapons. If one of the States Parties directly concerned is not satisfied with the report it shall have the right to settle the matter in accordance with provisions of this Convention or bring the issue to the Executive Council with a view to settling the matter expeditiously. 12. The purpose of the closure of a chemical weapons production facility is to render it inactive. 12. Synthesis of Schedule 1 chemicals for research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes, but not for protective purposes, may be carried out at laboratories in aggregate quantities less than 100g per year per facility. These facilities shall not be subject to any obligation relating to declaration and verification as specified in Sections D and E. D. DECLARATIONS Single small-scale facility 12. Verification provided for in Article VI, paragraph 4, shall be carried out through on-site inspection at those of the declared plant sites that comprise one or more plants which produced, processed or consumed during any of the previous three calendar years or are anticipated to produce, process or consume in the next calendar year more than— - (a) 10 kg of a chemical designated "*" in Schedule 2, part A; - (b) 1 tonne of any other chemical listed in Schedule 2, part A; or - (c) 10 tonnes of a chemical listed in Schedule 2, part B. 12. Verification provided for in paragraph 5 of Article VI shall be carried out through on-site inspections at those declared plant sites which produced during the previous calendar year or are anticipated to produce in the next calendar year in excess of 200 tonnes aggregate of any Schedule 3 chemical above the declaration threshold of 30 tonnes. 12. No plant site shall receive more than two inspections per year under the provisions of this Section. This, however, shall not limit inspections pursuant to Article IX. 12. Upon arrival of the inspection team at the point of entry, the inspected State Party shall be informed by the inspection team of the inspection mandate. Entry into the territory of the inspected State Party or the Host State 12. If the inspection team has not been dispatched within 24 hours from the receipt of the request, the Director-General shall inform the Executive Council and the States Parties concerned about the reasons for the delay. Briefings 12. In evaluating the performance of inspectors and any other employees of the Technical Secretariat, specific attention shall be given to the employee's record regarding protection of confidential information. - C. MEASURES TO PROTECT SENSITIVE INSTALLATIONS AND PREVENT DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL DATA IN THE COURSE OF ON-SITE VERIFICATION ACTIVITIES