Australia, Japan and New Zealand Working Paper on the Annual Review of Advances in S&T

In a paper submitted to the BWC, Australia, Japan and New Zealand proposed an annual review of advances in science and technology. The paper states that the “BWC would be strengthened by the development of a mechanism to ensure that the Convention can more promptly consider and respond to increasingly rapid advances in S&T”. Accordingly, it is proposed that “the Review Conference agree to establish annual reviews of developments in S&T relevant to the BWC in the 2012-2015 intersessional period”. The paper lays out the possible steps that could be included in a more frequent S&T review process and covers a number S&T related issues, suggesting that “Meeting of States Parties (MSP) would identify one or more S&T topics to be reviewed in the following year” and that states could invite “independent international scientific organisations (ISOs), including IAP” to prepare factual reviews of the topics under discussion.

Follow the link to view the working paper on the annual review of advances in science and technology

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