NON-PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS (CHEMICAL)

Grade: +1

After the Lyon Summit, Canada continued to work to implement this convention through its participation in the Ad Hoc Group on the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in Geneva. Canada also has a representative in the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Working Group on Biological and Toxin Weapons. Both the Ad Hoc Group and FAS work to establish and negotiate BTWC verification measures and incentives. Their work on verfication has paved the way for the Review Conferences to initiate steps toward adopting a legal protocol.

Even before the Lyon Summit, Canada considered the establishment of a verification or compliance regime to be a key priority for this Convention. On December 2, 1996, the UN issued a press release on the Conference on Biological Weapons Convention. It stated that the “Fourth Review Conference of the States Parties to the BWC took note of a report of its Committee of the Whole which indicated, among other things, that there was wide support for intensification of the work of an ad hoc group on the design of a verification protocol for the international treaty”. Also, on April 1, 1997, the Ad Hoc Group of States Parties to Biological Weapons Convention issued a press release which stated that significant progress was made in the identification of potential basic elements to be included in a verification protocol for consideration at the next session of the Ad Hoc Group in Geneva from 14 July to 1 August, 1997.