biological

More than 2,000 participants attending a week-long biosafety meeting that wrapped up yesterday have agreed to work towards legally binding rules for liability and redress for potential damage caused by the movements of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports.

More than 3000 participants from 147 countries have assembled in Bonn, the former German capital, for the start of a week-long meeting on how to improve their commitments to ensuring the safe use of modern biotechnology as outlined under a United Nations-backed treaty.

Stressing that “the horror of biological weapons is shared by all,” United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for a comprehensive strategy that will tackle the possibility of such arms falling into the hands of terrorists.

With some 2,300 species endangered or facing extinction, significant losses in agricultural output, and an economic cost estimated at more than $42 billion a year, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today marked the International Day for Biological Diversity with a call for “decisive action to protect our planet.”

States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention, ending their meeting at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva today, decided that the next review of the treaty's effectiveness, and any actions that need to be taken to strengthen it, will open in the same Swiss city this November.

The first of three annual meetings to discuss the Biological Weapons Convention begins today at the United Nations office in Geneva as part of a plan to strengthen the treaty’s effectiveness.

Experts from 150 States Parties to the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning biological weapons and representatives of United Nations agencies have begun a two-week meeting in Geneva to reinforce legal and security measures buttressing its implementation.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, today welcomed the "positive outcome" of the most recent review of an international treaty against biological weapons, which just concluded its work in Geneva.

A senior United Nations official has urged countries meeting to review an anti-biological weapons treaty to adopt a proposal that establishes a mechanism to monitor compliance with the international accord.

Recent anthrax attacks in the United States have reframed the current United Nations-hosted talks on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention, according to the chief negotiator.