BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION EXPERT MEETING CONCLUDES

The 2010 Meeting of Experts from States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was held in Geneva from 23 to 27 August 2010. The Meeting was held to discuss and promote common understanding and effective action on “provision of assistance and coordination with relevant organizations upon request by any State Party in the case of alleged use of biological or toxin weapons, including improving national capabilities for disease surveillance, detection and diagnosis and public health systems”.

The Meeting was chaired by Ambassador Pedro Oyarce of Chile, and brought together nearly 450 participants from 90 countries, including almost 250 experts from government agencies and international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), INTERPOL, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A range of non-governmental organizations and academic experts also attended the meeting.

Participants discussed how best to provide effective national and international responses in the case of alleged use of biological weapons. Many delegations highlighted the importance of a coordinated and cross-sectoral response to an alleged use of biological weapons, noting, as the delegation of Pakistan put it, that “no country is safe unless everyone else is, and a collective and cooperative effort is the only recipe”.

Many participants also spoke of the need to build national capacities in order to provide a rapid and accurate response. Belgium, on behalf of the European Union, was one of the many that emphasized the importance of early detection, saying that “mitigating the effects of incidents requires early detection and diagnosis, followed by prompt activation of an effective response.”

Other proposals included: fostering assistance to State parties by organizing training courses, simulation exercises, and joint partnerships; encouraging intra-sectoral cooperation, notably law enforcement and public health so that both aspects of the response are covered; and assisting States parties in the national implementation of the BWC.

Many delegations welcomed the participation in the Meeting of the various international organizations which, as the delegation of China put it, “can play an active role in helping States parties enhancing their capacity building in the field of disease surveillance, control and response … they may, within their mandates, provide assistance in the public health and humanitarian field to States parties which have practical difficulties”.

Referring to the extensive discussions held during the week, the Chairman said that “despite the differences in political outlook, in national priorities, in resources and capabilities, the discussion among States parties this week has been overwhelmingly constructive and mutually supportive. This is a precious quality, one that we must work to preserve and to develop. It is the key to finding effective solutions to many of the problems and challenges we have heard about this week”.

Summing up the discussions, the Chairman said that the Meeting of Experts had produced “a vast array of valuable, compelling material on every aspect of our topic. We have heard authoritative and deeply informative perspectives from developed and developing countries, from international and regional organizations, from health experts, agricultural experts, and security experts”. The Chairman added that the task of the States parties was now “to distil the essence of this information, to identify common themes and to draw out the key elements, both in order to answer the fundamental question of how the States parties would respond if a biological weapon were to be used tomorrow, and to take genuinely effective and coordinated action to provide assistance and to build national capabilities for responding to disease outbreaks”.

In order to give the experts more opportunities to meet their counterparts and maximize networking, the 2010 Meeting of Experts again featured a poster session, held on Tuesday 24 August. The poster session enhanced the technical information available to delegations by allowing experts to present a poster on the details of their work. The Chairman, noting the utility of such events for promoting networking and interaction, said: “We must maximise the benefits of having so much knowledge together in the same place. The poster session is an important opportunity for sharing information on both the national and international aspects of our work”. In addition to this event, various panel discussions and side events were held, giving the opportunity to experts and government representatives to engage in an open, free and interactive exchange of views on a broad variety of issues related to biological weapons.

The results of the Meeting of Experts will be considered by the Meeting of States parties, to be held in Geneva from 6 to 10 December 2010. The Meeting of States parties will review the ideas and proposals presented at the Meeting of Experts, and produce a report aimed at promoting effective action to strengthen the operation of the Convention in the areas covered by the topic.

The Meeting of Experts is part of a four-year programme mandated by the 2006 Sixth Review Conference of the BWC aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Convention and improving its effectiveness as a practical barrier against the development or use of biological weapons. The BWC prohibits the development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. More formally referred to as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, the treaty opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force in 1975. It currently has 163 States Parties, with a further 13 States having signed but not yet ratified.


For further information, please contact:

Mr. Richard Lennane
Head, BWC Implementation Support Unit
Tel: +41 (0)22 917 22 30
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 04 83
E-mail: rlennane@unog.ch
URL : www.unog.ch/bwc


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC10/37E