At the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) Ninth Review Conference in 2022, States Parties agreed to establish a new Working Group on the Strengthening of the Convention, which will operate during the current Intersessional Period. The agenda for the Working Group includes discussion on, among other things, compliance and verification. This is the first time in 20 years that verification has explicitly been added to the BWC agenda, initiating a new process that opens a window of opportunity for States Parties to advance work around verification and compliance.
To facilitate discussion on verification, this UNIDIR event considered three important elements related to verification: first, the focus and function of verification, drawing a UNIDIR report on this topic; second, possible models of BWC verification; and finally, the event considered the role of science and technology in the process of verification.
Event recording
Speakers
- Alonso Francisco Martínez Ruiz, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Mexico to International Organizations, and Friend of the Chair
- James Revill, Head, Weapons of Mass Distruction Programme, UNIDIR
- Matthew Shearer, Associate Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Moderated by María Garzón Maceda, Project Coordinator, Weapons of Mass Distruction Programme, UNIDIR
When and where
Friday, 6 December, 13:15-14:45 CET, Room III, Building A, Palais de Nations, Geneva, and online.