Overview
The 2017 Meeting of States Parties was held in the Palais des Nations from 4 to 8 December 2017. The meeting opened at 10:00 on Monday 4 December in Room XVIII and close on Friday 8 December.
The Meeting of States Parties was chaired by Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill of India with Ambassador Michael Biontino of Germany and Ambassador Juraj Podhorský of Slovakia as the Vice-Chairs. In accordance with the decision of the Eighth Review Conference, the meeting sought to make progress on issues of substance and process for the period before the next Review Conference, with a view to reaching consensus on an intersessional process.
Side Events
Side Events
Monday 4 December
13.00 - 15.00 International Genetically Engineered Machines competition (iGEM) - Safeguarding Advanced Biotechnologies in Practice: The iGEM Safety and Security Program
13.00 - 15.00 Malaysia and United States of America - Reports on BWC-relevant Developments by International Experts
18.15 - 19.30 Russian Federation - International conference "Global Biosecurity Challenges: Problems and Solutions", Sochi, Russia, 1-2 November 2017
Tuesday 5 December
9.00 - 10.00 India - Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security - Advances in Biological Sciences and Biocontainment
Moderator: S.R. RAO, Advisor, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India
Participants:
Ambassador Rakesh SOOD, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations
9.00 - 10.00 Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - Science, Industry and the Chemical Weapons Convention: Scientific Review and Key Stakeholder Engagement
Dr Alexander Kelle, Senior Policy Officer, OPCW: Industry Engagement
Dr Jonathan Forman, Science Policy Adviser and Secretary to the Scientific Advisory Board, OPCW:Scientific Review for the Fourth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention
13.00 - 15.00 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – Ukraine - Biosecurity Education: Opportunities to learn from current progress and new initiatives
13.00 - 15.00 Chimerix - Workshop on Smallpox Preparedness
Introduction
Dr D. Fraser Gray, Director, Chimerix Inc
Smallpox past and present
Prof Dr Mike Bray, Editor-in-Chief Antiviral Research
- Overview of smallpox disease
- Challenges with developing novel AVs against smallpox: pros & cons of existing animal models and what they tell us about human disease
- Advances in synthetic biology and why this presents an increased risk to our biosecurity
- Scenarios of potential smallpox outbreak: accidental to biothreat attack
Options for Smallpox: From vaccines to anti-virals
Prof Dr Graciela Andrei, REGA Institute, Leuven, Belgium
- Vaccines: Importance and issues with existing smallpox vaccines
- Introduction to two antivirals active against smallpox virus
- Attributes and issues with the antivirals including key data in vitro/invivo and current development status
Q&A
Wednesday 6 December
9.00 - 10.00 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security - Multilateral Biosecurity Dialogue in South-East Asia
Moderator: Anita CICERO, Deputy Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Participants:
Kenneth BERNARD, US Public Health Service (retired) and Advisor, National Security and Biodefense
Irma MAKALINAO, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine
Tikki PANGESTU, Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
Woraya LUANG-ON, Director, Bureau of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Zalini YUNUS, Senior Director, Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention Nucleus, Science and Technology Research Institute for Defence, Ministry of Defence, Malaysia
9.00 - 10.00 Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security - What is the Role of the BWC Within the Global Health Security Landscape: The Global Health Security Agenda Joint External Evaluations, UNSCR 1540, and Sustainable Development Goals?
Bonnie D. Jenkins, Ph.D.
Founder and President, Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
Joint Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institution and the University of Pennsylvania Perry World House
Former Ambassador and Special Envoy, Threat Reduction Programs, U.S. Department of State
Gian Luca Burci
Adjunct Professor
Department of International Law and Global Health Center
Graduate Institute of International Development Studies
Geneva
Richard Cupitt, Ph.D
Senior Associate and Program Director, The Henry L. Stimson Center
Visiting Scholar, Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University
Former U.S. Special Coordinator for UN Security Council resolution 1540
13.00 - 15.00 Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge - Global Catastrophic Biological Risk: Considering Very Low Probability, Very High Consequence Events
13.00 - 15.00 France and Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique - Initiating a Request under Article VII of the BTWC (the presentation is available here)
Thursday 7 December
9.00 - 10.00 Italy - European Union - United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) - Aligning International Needs Assessments and National Action Plans in Africa in the Post-Ebola Biological Field
9.00 - 10.00 Switzerland and Germany - Strengthening the UNSGM: Moving Towards a Global Trusted Network of UNSGM Designated Laboratories
09:10 Opening remarks
Ambassador Sabrina Dallafior, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Conference on Disarmament
Ambassador Michael Biontino, Permanent Representative of Germany to the Conference on Disarmament
09:20 Report on the Third Swiss UNSGM Designated Laboratories Workshop
Dr Cédric Invernizzi, Senior CBRN Arms Control Expert, Spiez Laboratory, Federal Office for Civil Protection, Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports, Switzerland
09:35 Report on the German activities to strengthen the UNSGM Bio Reference Laboratories
Dr Stefan Kloth, Research Associate, Strengthening Global Health and Biosecurity, Robert Koch Institute, Germany
09:50 Q&A
13.00 - 15.00 InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) - Implementation in Action: IAP’s Experience in Engaging Scientists in Biosecurity
13.00 - 15.00 Emergent BioSolutions - How Real is the Biological Threat: A Global Perspective
Dr. Andrew Nichols, Booz Allen Hamilton
The Current Biological Threat Landscape
Rear Admiral W. Craig Vanderwagen, former Assistant Secretary for Preparedness & Response, US HHS
The US Experience in Biological Preparedness and Planning
Colonel Dr. Benjamin Queyriaux, NATO International Military Staff, Medical Advisor
Bio-threat Preparedness in the Military
Prof. Dr. Roberto Mugavero, president of the Italian “Observatory on Security and CBRNE Defence”
European CBRNe Threat Scenarios and New Tools for Risk Mitigation
13:00 - 15:00 European Union - The European Union's Continued Support for Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
Friday 8 December
13.00-15.00 Canada - Strengthening Global Mechanisms and Capabilities for Responding to Deliberate Use of Disease
