Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

BWC Protocol Bulletin, April 2, 2001

By Jenni Rissanen

Chair's "Composite Text" for BWC Protocol Out

Summary

Ambassador Tibor Tóth of Hungary, the Chair of the Ad Hoc Group (AHG) of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC), announced on March 29 that he would make available his proposal for a verification Protocol to the BWC - the Chair's "composite text". Tóth's announcement came in a joint symposium in Geneva by the Quaker United Nations Office and Bradford University on "Facing the Challenge of Disease in the 21st Century". The 210-page text has been available (for delegations) since Friday afternoon.

Tóth hoped his text would "bring clarity to the outstanding questions". Among the outstanding issues are clarification visits, initiation of investigations, legal issues such as reservations to and the entry-into-force of the Protocol, as well as the highly contentious question of transfers/export controls.

The last session of the AHG, held February 12-23, saw calls both for and against the introduction of the text. The European Union (EU), Norway, New Zealand and South Africa made the strongest appeals for such a text, believing it was necessary to see the big picture if the negotiations were to be concluded by the Fifth BWC Review Conference, scheduled for November 19-December 7 this year. However, China, Iran and Pakistan resisted those calls.

Delegations have now three weeks to study Tóth's proposals until the AHG gets together again in Geneva on April 23 for their second-last session. The Acronym Institute will also study the proposals and will aim to ensure that readers are kept up to date as BWC Protocol developments occur. It will be crucial to make good use of the April session as the AHG has only a total of seven weeks of scheduled negotiations left this year.

Jenni Rissanen is the Acronym Institute's analyst monitoring the BWC AHG Protocol negotiations in Geneva.