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The Seventh Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) ended on December 22. 2011, and, according to Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman, the United States is "happy with the results."
The 14-day conference took place in Geneva, Switzerland and was attended by representatives from the 165 States Parties and 12 signatory nations to the BWC. The final document adopted by the convention calls for member states to demonstrate their adherence to the BWC more fully, and lays out a program for the next intersessional period leading up to the Eighth Review Conference in 2016.
Participating states agreed to a revision of the reporting document for confidence building measures (CBMs), which are voluntarily submitted on an annual basis for the purpose of describing the state’s peaceful biological activities. Currently, only about half of the States Parties submit CBMs. "The conference recognizes the urgent need to increase the number of States Parties participating in confidence building measures and calls upon all States Parties to participate annually," the final document says. The document also calls on "those States Parties, in a position to do so, to provide technical assistance and support, through training for instance, to those States Parties requesting it to assist them to complete their annual confidence building measures submissions." Details on the revisions to be made to the reporting CBM document have not yet been made available.
The final document also stresses the importance of achieving universal membership in the BWC. "The conference underlines that the objectives of the convention will not be fully realized as long as there remains even a single state not party that could possess or acquire biological weapons," it states. "The conference urges States Parties to take action to persuade non-parties to accede to the convention without delay, and welcomes regional initiatives that would lead to wider accession and adherence to the convention."
States Parties at the review conference approved the creation of a database to "facilitate requests for and offers of exchange of assistance and cooperation among States Parties." The BWC Implementation Support Unit (ISU) will be responsible for creating and maintaining the database. The U.S. proposal to expand the three-member ISU was not passed.
BWC delegates also agreed to continue the "intersessional process" of annual meetings to take place during the five years between review conferences. These meetings will focus on three primary topics: strengthening implementation of the convention, legally and practically, by each State Party; regular and systematic review of scientific and technological developments in the life sciences relevant to the convention; and increasing capacity to respond to disease outbreaks, including biosafety, biosecurity, disease surveillance, preparedness, and response.
In a press conference following the conference, Countryman said, "These are the three areas that the United States emphasized when Secretary Clinton spoke to the conference on December 7th, and we’re pleased, of course, that they are the focus of the final document. They were adopted not because the United States pushed them but because we selected the topics that it is clear the majority of states party agree are essential for future development. These are the very topics at the intersection of public health and international security that will help all the nations of the world confront some serious challenges in the years ahead."
In a surprising move, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an address to the BWC Review Conference during its opening days. It was the first time such a high-level official has represented the United States at a BWC forum. Clinton focused her remarks on what the Obama administration sees as a growing risk that terrorists, rather than nation states, might carry out a biological attack. She also recognized the need to balance "scientific freedom" with the need to guard against dual-use technologies which could potentially enable terrorist groups to develop a biological weapon. Clinton’s appearance at the conference was believed to be aimed at energizing the BWC and highlighting the United States’ proactive stance against biological weapons.
"So we are happy with the results," Countryman said in his press conference. " We think they are significant for not only the United States as we move ahead on advancing the President’s national strategy for countering biological threats, but that they have the same value for all of our partners around the world who share this concern about potential biological and toxic threats."
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