Compliance issues in the BTWC (WP1342)

This conference will address the issues of verification and compliance in the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. We will look at whether specific effective strategies on compliance can be identified, drafted, agreed and implemented.

Verification and compliance issues in the BTWC have a troubled history, but nonetheless there is a general recognition that the Convention needs to have some better tools to enable its States Parties to demonstrate their compliance. How then can the topic be approached, and what specific effective strategies on compliance can be identified, drafted, agreed and implemented?

Specific questions to be addressed will be:

• What does compliance with the BTWC look like? How can the definition be clear, meaningful, and widely accepted by States Parties? How do we deal with repeated demands for a verification protocol?
• How can compliance be demonstrated and assured by States Parties?
• What measures/steps can be taken nationally and internationally as well as collectively to put it into practice?
• What preparatory work can be done on this issue running up to the eighth review conference in 2016? Can realistic ambitions or objectives for agreement there be defined?