Overview
The 2014 Meeting of States Parties was held in the Palais des Nations from 1 to 5 December 2014. The meeting opened at 10:00 on Monday 1 December in Room XVIII and closed on Friday 5 December.
The Meeting of States Parties was chaired by Ambassador Urs Schmid of Switzerland. In accordance with the decision of the Seventh Review Conference, the meeting considered the work of the Meeting of Experts (4-8 August 2014) on the three standing agenda items (cooperation and assistance, with a particular focus on strengthening cooperation and assistance under Article X; review of developments in the field of science and technology related to the Convention; and strengthening national implementation), as well as the biennial item of how to strengthen implementation of Article VII.
The 2014 Meeting of States Parties ended on 5 December 2014. A press release is available here.
Report of the Meeting of States Parties
The report is now available in all UN languages:
Side Events
Monday 1 December
13.00 - 15.00 Ukraine and University of Bradford - Building a Web of Prevention: Progress to Date - Room XXIV
- Iaroslava Maksymovych, PhD 'Project P633: Education and Awareness-raising in Ukraine'
- Jo Husbands, PhD, 'Report of the OPWC SAB Temporary Working Group on Education and Outreach'
- Brett Edwards, PhD, 'Biological and Chemical Security in an Age of Responsible Innovation'
- Kathryn McLaughlin, 'BioWeapons Monitor 2014'
13.00 - 15.00 King's College London - The Threat of Manufactured Disease - Room XXV
- Launch of workshop report on 'Confidence & Compliance with the BWC’
Ambassador Dr Matthew Rowland (UK) and Dr Gustav Lindstrom (Geneva Centre for Security Policy) [presentation]
- Gain-of-function research: An example of the importance and continued relevance of the CBMs [podcast]
- Prof Simon Wain-Hobson (Pasteur Institute) and Prof Marc Lipsitch (Harvard University) [presentation]
- Chair’s summary: ‘Preventing a man-made pandemic’ (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Dr Filippa Lentzos (King’s College London)
18.15 - 20.00 Switzerland - Reception - Restaurant des Delegues, 8th Floor, Palais des Nations
Tuesday 2 December
13.00 - 15.00 UK, Sweden, and Germany - UN Secretary General Mechanism on Investigations of Alleged Use - Room XXIV
Wednesday 3 December
9.00 - 10.00 OPCW and University of Hamburg - Innovative and Enabling Technologies: Embracing Developments in S&T to Benefit Treaty Implementation - Room XXIV
- Jonathan Forman, 'Enabling Biochemical Sampling and Analysis across the Universe'
- Gunnar Jeremias and Mirko Himmel, PhD, 'Open Source Data Analysis: Contributions to Enhancing Transparency in the BWC'
- James Revill, PhD, 'How Easy is "Easy": Tacit Knowledge, Biological Weapons and the BTWC'
13.00 - 15.00 Switzerland - Spiez Convergence 2014: Briefing on First Workshop - Room XXIV
13.00 - 15.00 Geneva Forum - 'Where Next for the Biological Weapons Convention?' - Room XXV
Thursday 4 December
9.00 - 10.00 USA - Global Health Security Agenda, International Response to the Ebola Outbreak, and Their Relevance to the Biological Weapons Convention - Room XXIV
13.00 - 15.00 Germany and Tunisia - Biosecurity - Biorisks - Bioethics - Room XXIV
13.00 - 15.00 France - A Peer-Review Mechanism for the BTWC: Feedback of the Pilot Exercise and Follow-up - Room XXV
Friday 5 December
13.00 -15.00 Italy - National Action Plans and Sharing Best Practices: An Innovative Network Approach to Mitigating Biological Risks - Room XXV
