Biological Weapons Convention:
The External Affairs Minister recently called for urgent reforms to strengthen global biosecurity and modernise the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), warning that biological threats are becoming harder to manage in a rapidly evolving scientific landscape.
- It is a legally binding international treaty that bans the use of biological and toxin weapons and prohibits all development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, or transfer of such weapons.
- The treaty also bans any equipment or means of delivery that is designed to use biological agents or toxins for hostile purposes or armed conflict.
- It requires signatories to destroy biological weapons, agents, and production facilities within nine months of the treaty’s entry into force.
- It opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force in 1975.
- It was the first multilateral treaty categorically banning a class of weapon.
- It currently has 187 states-parties, including Palestine, and four signatories (Egypt, Haiti, Somalia, and Syria).
- Ten states have neither signed nor ratified the BWC (Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and Tuvalu).
- India signed and ratified the BWC in 1974.
- The convention stipulates that states shall cooperate bilaterally or multilaterally to solve compliance issues.
- States may also submit complaints to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should they believe another state is violating the treaty.
- However, there is no implementation body of the BWC.
- There is a review conference every five years to review the convention’s implementation, and establish confidence-building measures.
- Biological weapons disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals, or plants.
- They generally consist of two parts – a weaponized agent and a delivery mechanism.
- Almost any disease-causing organism (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, prions, or rickettsiae) or toxin (poisons derived from animals, plants, or microorganisms, or similar substances produced synthetically) can be used in biological weapons.
