The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was created through the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1284 of 17 December 1999. UNMOVIC was to replace the former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and continue with the latter's mandate to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to check Iraq's compliance with its obligations not to reacquire the same weapons prohibited to it by the Security Council.

Following the mandate of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, Saddam Hussein allowed UN inspectors to return to Iraq in November 2002. UNMOVIC led inspections of alleged chemical and biological facilities in Iraq until shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, but did not find any weapons of mass destruction. Based on its inspections and examinations during this time, UNMOVIC inspectors determined that UNSCOM had successfully dismantled Iraq’s unconventional weapons program during the 1990s.

"On 29 June 2007, the Security Council adopted resolution 1762 (2007) which, inter-alia, decided to terminate immediately the mandate of UNMOVIC under the relevant resolutions." (UMNOVIC official site)