Division 1.4.3 Project description

A series of regional/sub-regional workshops will be organised to address the topics of the 2012-2015 inter-sessional programme and to help the President of the next Review Conference ahead of and during the Eighth Review Conference, with a view to the future evolution of the BTWC, and will have as their objective to facilitate common understandings on a regional/sub-regional basis by discussing proposals for moving issues forward. Such workshops could take place adjacent to the science and technology workshops described above to take maximum advantage of resources and experts and to encourage dialogue and interaction among scientists, irrespective of their institutional affiliation, and policymakers. Events will also be organised in Geneva as appropriate. Therefore these workshops should also aim at the participation of scientists and representatives from industry and professional associations. It would encourage the formation of a broad constituency of States Parties in favour of the incremental strengthening of the BTWC. A Sponsorship programme would be linked with the workshops, to enable participants from developing States Parties to attend the workshops and the Eighth Review Conference. In this context it can be examined how sponsored participants could be connected with members of delegations of EU Member States during BTWC meetings.

Consideration of how to operationalise Article VII of the BTWC would be valuable, taking into account the wealth of experience being generated by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. A lessons-learned study will be undertaken focusing on the implications of the outbreak and the international response thereto for the implementation of Article VII of the BTWC, but also covering aspects of relevance to Article X in terms of scientific cooperation and the development of therapeutics and vaccines. A report will be produced for consideration by States Parties in their preparations for the Eighth Review Conference.

At least one exercise among interested States Parties of the peer review mechanism will be undertaken in order to broaden support for this concept and to further explore the relevance of the concept. The exercise will build upon the exercise conducted in France in 2013, and that conducted by the BENELUX countries in 2015, with a view to producing a report for the consideration of States Parties in advance of the Eighth Review Conference. A study will also be made of how to make the provisions of Article V of the BTWC regarding consultation among States Parties more effective.