Strengthening Compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention: The Protocol Negotiations

Abstract

On 25 July 2001 the United States announced to the BW Ad Hoc Group (AHG) in Geneva, which had been negotiating a verification Protocol since 1995, that it could not support the Draft Protocol presented earlier by the AHG's Chairman Ambassador Tibor Toth. This brought the negotiations to an abrupt halt and so far attempts to restart them have failed. The subsequent Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was suspended for a year, because no agreement could be reached on various issues, most notably the future of the Ad Hoc Group as the body responsible for negotiations on a BWC verification Protocol. So far, the prospects for success at the resumed BWC Review Conference (taking place in Geneva from 11 to 22 November this year) are not too good. The present article, which will take stock of the present situation related to multilateral efforts to strengthen the BWC, will be followed by a discussion of the text of the Draft Protocol in the next issue of the journal. This will also enable an analysis of the results of the resumed Review Conference.