Key Points
- Chandrakant Patel came to Australia in 1991
- He served as Australia’s representative in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for 10 years
- In 2013, he was recognised for his role in the OPCW team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- The Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare is observed on 30 November each year
As the only child of a farming family from Gujarat in India, Chandrakant Patel had no plans to migrate to another country.
However, as a young chemical engineer, his work at the state fertiliser company brought him into contact with a visiting Australian business delegation who were impressed by his knowledge and skills.
“A delegation from Australia came to my company, they wanted our technology. They worked with me on various occasions and they invited me to come to Australia,” he tells SBS Gujarati.
Chandrakant Patel transiting in Singapore on his way to migrating to Australia permanently. Credit: Supplied
Within a few days of his arrival he’d landed a job with Queensland Nickel.
I just emailed [a member of the delegation] and he directly sent me a business class ticket to Gladstone. I stayed there for a week, and in just eight days I had a job, house and car.Chandrakant Patel
In the industrial unit in which he was working, he carried out fundamental but crucial process improvements, like increasing production capacity and saving production costs.
“I saved $1 million worth of processed water at Queensland Nickel and I took our Australian company from making no more than 30 tonnes of sodium cyanide to 110 tonnes,” he says, explaining that sodium cyanide plays an important role in gold mining.
These achievements didn’t go unnoticed and in 1998 Mr Patel was appointed by the Australian government to be the country's representative in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
“I received a call from Canberra. They said, you are one of the most knowledgeable people in Australia when it comes to toxic chemicals and toxicology, and we need Australian representation in the United Nations.”
Chandrakant Patel spends his last weekend in Australia before leaving on an OPCW assignment. Credit: Supplied
Striving for a world free of chemical weapons
The OPCW is an intergovernmental body that was established to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997.
This was the world’s first multilateral disarmament agreement to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction within a fixed timeframe.
Mr Patel explains that many countries maintained enormous stockpiles of chemical weapons in the wake of World War II, and these posed a serious threat.
”One particle of VX [a human-made chemical warfare agent] kills 32 people. If we list chemicals in order of lethality with sodium cyanide as no. 100, then VX can be placed at no. 1,” he says.
"When I joined [OPCW], I think there were 3,000 tonnes of chemical weapons in the world. This amount is enough to destroy the population of the entire world multiple times over."
TOPSHOT - A man tries on an air permeable charcoal impregnated suit, combined with a respirator (or gas mask), rubber boots and three layers of gloves during a simulation at the OPCW (The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) headquarters in The Hague, The Netherlands, on April 20, 2017. Source: AFP / JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty Images
Training as a chemical weapons inspector
For this role, Mr Patel underwent intensive training. Ongoing tests challenged him in all aspects of being, be it mental, physical or intellectual.
“People who knew how to manufacture chemical weapons, those who are masters of that, trained us. Our character, behaviour and technical knowledge were all taken into consideration,” he says.
If at any point in the training, they feel you are not capable, then they will reject you immediately.Chandrakant Patel
Eliminating the threat requires knowing the threat.
“First we need to know what the chemical is, what it’s made of, how it’s made. Then comes its destruction and there are many processes of destruction like neutralisation, incineration or combining with another chemical to convert it into something useful,” Mr Patel explains.
After determining how many weapons a country has and how they are stored, a plan is devised on how to destroy the weapons – a highly confidential operation that involves governments, and which must mitigate against local threats and chances of misuse.
“We had to go, carry out verification, see the chemicals, destroy them, keep a record of them and keep all these matters confidential,” he says.
"No one knew where we were going on a mission. We didn’t even know who our teammates would be as all matters were kept secret."
Mr Patel takes pride in ensuring “chemistry is used for peace, progress and prosperity”. Source: Supplied / Supplied by: Chandrakant Patel
He says missions would often take unpredictable twists and turns, but this was just “part of the job”.
One time his team was tipped off about a potential hostage situation.
“Because of a security threat against us, the plane we were travelling on had to be taken to an aircraft maintenance bay. All OPCW officials were escorted to our destination, while safety and security officials in civil attire took our place in the aircraft to collect our luggage,” he says.
Nobel Peace Prize
In 2013, OPCW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.
Although he had left the organisation several years prior, Mr Patel was recognised for his role in contributing to OPCW's mission.
The OPCW recognised Chandrakant Patel after the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 2013.
At the time of the award, the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in the country’s civil war had sparked a strong international response.
From 2013-2014, the OPCW worked with the United Nations in the OPCW-UN Joint Mission on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons.
For Mr Patel, the Nobel Prize capped off a decade of strong teamwork.
I am proud that to have been a part of the Nobel Prize award-winning group.Chandrakant Patel
According to , as of 2022, 193 countries have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and more than 99 per cent of all declared chemical weapon stockpiles have been verifiably and irreversibly destroyed.
Mr Patel says the occasion reaffirms the OPCW's commitment to sustainable peace and security.
Looking back on his experiences, he takes pride in “restoring respect” for the global norm against such weapons and ensuring “chemistry is used for peace, progress and prosperity”.
Post-OPCW assignment: Giving back to society
Mr Patel left the OPCW after 10 years of service in 2008.
Afterwards he says he devoted much of his time to uplifting the living standards of his home village in rural Gujarat, helping the state government to secure valuable investment.
Chandrakant Patel with the then chief minister of Gujarat, India, for a discussion at the Global Investment Summit in 2012
