What is a biological weapon?

A biological warfare agent is a living microorganism or toxin. Many pathogenic (disease producing) microorganisms are bacteria or viruses. Fungal organisms are also potential agents. Toxins, although not living, are produced by certain species of microorganisms, plants or animals.

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)

The use of such weapons was banned by international law through the 1925 Geneva Protocol. The Protocol was extended by the BTWC, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition or retention of biological and toxin weapons, but has no effective provisions to verify compliance.  

There are currently 163 States Parties to the Convention and 32 non-states parties.

The BTWC was signed on 10 April 1972 in London, Washington and Moscow and entered into force on 26 March 1975.  The UK was a strong supporter of the negotiations to agree a verification protocol that ran from 1995 to 2001 in the Ad Hoc Group. But negotiations ultimately failed in 2001 and the Fifth Review Conference had to be suspended for a year while a compromise was worked out.  In 2002 States agreed a 3 year intersessional work programme to discuss specific topics relevant to the Convention.

The Second and Third BTWC Review Conferences in 1986 and 1991 respectively agreed seven Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) that States Parties should submit each year on specified facilities, activities and information. The UK’s annual CBM return for 2009 can be found on the Implementation Support Unit website.

The 2002 UK Green Paper Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: Countering the Threat from Biological Weapons provides more detail on the Protocol and other relevant issues.

For further background on the BTWC and current activities see the Implementation Support Unit website:

The Sixth BTWC Review Conference 2006

This was chaired by Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan.  A three-part Final Document issued including a Final Declaration by the States Parties on their continued commitment to the Convention and their determination to exclude completely the possibility of the use of biological weapons.  The Conference also, inter alia:

• reviewed all Articles of the Convention 
• agreed that prohibitions in Article I, which defines the scope of the Convention, apply to all scientific and technological developments in the life sciences and in other fields of science relevant to the Convention that have no peaceful purpose 
•  established a three-person Implementation Support Unit (ISU) at the UN (Geneva)
• agreed a new Intersessional work programme for 2007-2010 that included Meetings of Experts (MXP) and the States Parties (MSP) to discuss, and promote common understanding and effective action on:

1. ways and means to enhance national implementation, including enforcement of national legislation, strengthening of national institutions and coordination among national law enforcement institutions - 2007
2. regional and sub-regional cooperation on implementation of the Convention - 2007
3. national, regional and international measures to improve biosafety and biosecurity, including laboratory safety and security of pathogens and toxins - 2008
4. oversight, education, awareness raising, and adoption and/or development of codes of conduct with the aim of preventing misuse in the context of advances in bio-science and bio-technology research with the potential of use for purposes prohibited by the Convention - 2008
5. with a view to enhancing international cooperation, assistance and exchange in biological sciences and technology for peaceful purposes, discuss, and promote common understanding and effective action on promoting capacity building in the fields of disease surveillance, detection, diagnosis, and containment of infectious diseases: for States Parties in need of assistance, identifying requirements and requests for capacity enhancement; and from States Parties in a position to do so, and international organizations, opportunities for providing assistance related to these fields - 2009
6. 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 - 2010.

UK Contributions

The UK has submitted working papers to the MXPs held in 2007 and 2008. We have presented four papers for the 2009 meeting on the following topics:

• Advance Notification of Relevant Conferences (including accompanying flyer) 
• UK Activities on International Cooperation and Assistance Promoting Capacity Building in the Fields of Disease Surveillance, Detection, Diagnosis and Containment of Infectious Diseases 
• UK Views on Priority Programmes for Promoting Capacity Building for Surveillance, Detection, Diagnosis and Containment of Infectious Diseases 
• Disease Outbreak Reporting: UK Approach to Completion of Confidence Building Measure Form B.

 
All of these can be found on the Implementation Support Unit website.

In addition, the UK will also have three contributions to the MXP 2009 Poster session on Thursday 25 August:

• OIE Laboratory twinning: a valuable concept for regional development. 
• crop pest outbreak predict, prevent and surveillance capabilities in developing countries
• building capacity for improving plant health in Georgia through UK assistance and cooperation.

UK working papers from 2007 and 2008 are also available at the Implementation Support Unit web site.