The Syrian government announced on Tuesday that it would accept Russia's proposal regarding its chemcial weapons stockpiles.  As part of the agreement, Syria also committed itself to signing the Chemical Weapons Convention.

So what exactly is the Chemical Weapons Convention? Here's a rundown of what you need to know:

Why does the Chemical Weapons Convention have several different names?

The real name of the agreement is the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction."  As per international norm, the idea is to create the longest name for an agreement possible.  They succeeded.

Luckily, everyone uses its shortened name, the Chemical Weapons Convention, or the even shorter acronym, CWC. We'll use CWC for the rest of this article.

Who enforces the rules?

The CWC was signed on January 13, 1993 and went into effect on April 29, 1997.  As with other similar international agreements like the Ottawa Treaty (which bans antipersonnel landmines), the CWC is adminstered by an intergovernmental organization that helps to make sure every country is following the rules and that the Convention is being enforced. 

The intergovernmental organization that administers the CWC is the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It's headquarted at The Hague in the Netherlands and is an independent intergovernmental organization.

Is it part of the United Nations?

Technically no, but the United Nations serves as a depository for the OPCW's work and as with most international law issues, the organizations overlap.

What does it do?

According to the OPCW website:

"The CWC aims to eliminate an entire category of weapons of mass destruction by prohibiting the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons by States Parties (the countries who sign the CWC).  States Parties, in turn, must take the steps necessary to enforce that prohibition in respect of persons (natural or legal) within their jurisdiction."

States that have signed onto the CWC have agreed to destroy or disarm their chemical weapons stockpiles and also shut down any facilities that make chemical weapons.

Just like federal drug and chemical laws, the CWC also includes a "Schedule" Annex that outlines chemical and their precursors (ingredients for chemical weapons, essentially). The States Parties are required to make sure that these chemicals aren't used for chemical weapons.

Anything else?

Yes.  The CWC also includes a provision called the "Challenge Inspection." Any State Party that even thinks another State Party isn't following the CWC's rules can request that the OPCW's Director General send an inspection team. According to the OPCW, these can be "any time, anywhere" inspections.  States Parties can't refuse the inspections, either.

So why doesn't the United States do that with Syria?

They could, except that Syria is one of the few states to not be a party (agree to or signed) to the CWC.  Since Syria didn't sign it, it's not held to the CWC's rules (a Security Council resolution complicates this). The United States can't use the CWC's inspection mechanism, so it has to use another method (or several) to address Syria's chemical weapons.

Whoa, so who else didn't sign?

First, calm down. It should be noted that a vast majority of countries are party to the CWC, including the United States. As of June 2013, 189 countries are party to the CWC. 

However, there's a select group that hasn't.  The usual "bad actors" are all here: Angola, Myanmar, North Korea, South Sudan, and of course, Syria. One of the United States' major allies and the "only democracy in the Middle East," Israel, hasn't signed it either.

So how do you punish a non-party country to the CWC?

A couple of ways. You could go the U.S. plan from last week, which was to punish the guilty party (Syria) by threatening a military strike.  You could also use the various international law mechanisms. A UN Security Council resolution can also provide legal authority for an agreed-to punishment.

You could also make them sign the Convention, which is what Russia has proposed.

Reach Executive Producer Colin Hale here. Follow him on Twitter.