The reports in this series are:
Publication of this series will now pause, with an update being provided to coincide with preparations for whatever form the next gathering of BWC states parties will take. A subscription sign-up form is available to receive future reports.
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COVID-19 impact report number 1
The Biological Weapons Convention and responses to disease
Published Wednesday 10th June 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 1
- The Biological Weapons Convention, 1972.
- World Health Organization, Health Aspects of Chemical and Biological Weapons, 1970, 132pp.
- World Health Organization, Public health response to biological and chemical weapons ' WHO guidance, 2004, 340 + xvii pp.
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 'Volume I. The Rise of CB Weapons', The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, 1971, 395pp.
- Background reading for report 1
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COVID-19 impact report number 2
Distinguishing deliberate disease from natural events or accidental releases
Published Wednesday 17th June 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 2:
- Japan, co-sponsored by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, 'Strengthening Cooperation among States Parties and Relevant International Organizations in Response to Deliberate Spread of Infectious Diseases', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.4/WP.7, 6 August 2018, 3pp.
- South Africa, 'The relationship between investigations of alleged use of BTW and unusual outbreaks of disease and challenge inspections', BWC/AD HOC GROUP/WP.16, 29 November 1995, 5pp.
- South Africa, 'Difference between investigation of alleged use of BTW and investigation of unusual outbreaks of disease', BWC/AD HOC GROUP/WP.54, 15 July 1996, 3pp.
- South Africa, 'Article IV. Investigations', BWC/AD HOC GROUP/WP.440, 26 January 2001, 46pp.
- Kristian G. Andersen, Andrew Rambaut, W Ian Lipkin, Edward C Holmes, Robert F Garry, 'The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2', Nature Medicine, April 2020, pp450-52 [a version of this paper had been published online on 17 March]. See also: Yong-Zhen Zhang and Edward C. Holmes, 'A Genomic Perspective on the Origin and Emergence of SARS-CoV-2', Cell, 16 April 2020, pp 223-27.
- World Health Assembly, 'COVID-19 response', WHA73.1, 19 May 2020, 7pp.
- Background reading for report 2, listed in chronological order
- Julian Robinson, Jeanne Guillemin and Matthew Meselson, 'Yellow Rain: The Story Collapses', Foreign Policy, No. 68 (Autumn, 1987), pp 100-17.
- Malcolm R. Dando, Graham S. Pearson, Bohumir Kriz (eds.), Scientific and Technical Means of Distinguishing Between Natural and Other Outbreaks of Disease, (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), 171 + vii pp [different parts of the book are available online for free from the publishers or as extracts from a Google book].
- Department of State, United States of America, 'Case Study: Yellow Rain', Fact Sheet, 1 October 2005, 3pp.
- Henry Wilde, 'The "Yellow Rain" controversy: Are there lessons from the past?', Asian Biomedicine, vol 2, no 5, October 2008, pp 421-29.
- Vineet D Menachery, Boyd L Yount Jr, Kari Debbink, Sudhakar Agnihothram, Lisa E Gralinski, Jessica A Plante, Rachel L Graham, Trevor Scobey, Xing-Yi Ge, Eric F Donaldson, Scott H Randell, Antonio Lanzavecchia, Wayne A Marasco, Zhengli-Li Shi and Ralph S Baric, 'A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence', Nature Medicine, 21, pp 1508'15, 9 November 2015.
- Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Amanda Moodie, 'The Virus of Disinformation - Echoes of Past Bioweapons Accusations in Today-s COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories', War on the Rocks, 6 April 2020.
- Milton Leitenberg, 'Did the SARS-CoV-2 virus arise from a bat coronavirus research program in a Chinese laboratory? Very possibly', Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 4 June 2020.
- Peter Frankopan, 'Covid-19 didn't escape from a lab - but the next deadly virus could', Prospect, 9 June 2020.
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COVID-19 impact report number 3
BWC Article VII & Article X discussions relevant to disease outbreak response
Published Wednesday 24th June 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 3
- United Kingdom, 'Article VII: options for implementation and proposal for intersessional work', BWC/CONF.VII/WP.1, 11 October 2011, 4pp.
- Cuba (on behalf of the non-aligned states), 'The Establishment of a Mechanism for the Full Implementation of Article X of the Convention', BWC/MSP/2009/MX/WP.24, 25 August 2009, 3pp.
A number of similar proposals have been made in subsequent meetings, the most recent being Venezuela (on behalf of the non-aligned states), 'Institutional Mechanism for International Co-operation and Compliance with Article X', BWC/MSP/2019/MX.1/WP.3, 24 July 2019, 4pp.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Final Document of the Seventh Review Conference [5'22 December 2011], BWC/CONF.VII/7, 13 January 2012, 59pp. [The encouragement for submission of Article X reports is in 'Part II. Final Declaration' at paragraph 61; the decision to establish the Article X database is in 'Part III. Decisions and recommendations' at paragraph 17.]
- Implementation Support Unit, Biological Weapons Convention, 'Annual report of the Implementation Support
Unit', BWC/MSP/2019/4, 8 October 2019, 18pp. [+ Amend.1, 6 December 2019, 18pp.]
- Australia, 'Article X reports ' Australia's approach to structure and content', BWC/MSP/2018/WP.2, 20 November 2018, 3pp.
- South Africa, 'Article VII ' Procedures', BWC/MSP/2014/MX/WP.9, 31 July 2014, 3pp.
This was followed up by: South Africa, 'Perspectives on article VII', BWC/MSP/2014/WP.7, 2 December 2014, 3pp; South Africa, 'Implementation of Article VII', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.4/WP.3, 26 July 2018, 4pp; and South Africa, 'Provision of assistance to a State Party that has been exposed as a result of a violation of the Convention', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.4/WP.4, 26 July 2018, 3pp.
- France and India, 'Proposal for establishment of a database for assistance in the framework of Article VII of the Biological Weapons Convention', BWC/MSP/2015/MX/WP.7, 30 July 2015, 3pp.
This was followed up by: France and India, 'Proposal for establishment of a database for assistance in the framework of Article VII of the Biological Weapons
Convention', BWC/MSP/2018/WP.7, 30 November 2018, 2pp.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Final Document of the Eighth Review Conference [7-25 November 2016], BWC/CONF.VIII/4, 11 January 2017, 30pp. [The quoted text is taken from 'Part II. Final Declaration' at paragraph 35.]
- Russia, 'Operationalising mobile biomedical units to deliver protection against biological weapons, investigate their alleged use, and to suppress epidemics of various etiology', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.1/Rev.2, 4 July 2016, 5pp. [The first version of this paper was issued on 11 April 2016.]
- United Kingdom, 'The United Kingdom public health rapid support team concept', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.4/WP.2, 26 July 2018, 4pp.
- Japan, 'Approach to Strengthening Measures for Emerging Infectious Diseases based on Lessons Learned from the Ebola Outbreak', BWC/MSP/2018/WP.4, 21 November 2018, 4pp.
- Russia and United Kingdom, 'Core Elements for an Effective Article VII Response', BWC/MSP/2018/WP.6, 3 December 2018, 6pp.
- Background reading for report 3, listed in chronological order
- Russia, 'Information on practical efforts to enhance the BTWC regime undertaken by the Federal Service on Customers' Rights Protection and Human Well-Being Surveillance of the Russian Federation in 2011-2012', BWC/MSP/2012/MX/WP.9, 17 July 2012, 3pp [Russian], 2pp [English].
- France, 'Pistes de travail sur la mise en oeuvre de l'article VII dans le cadre de la CIAB [Avenues for action on implementing Article VII under the BTWC]', BWC/MSP/2014/MX/WP.13, 13 August 2014, 4pp [French], 3pp [English].
- United States of America, 'Article VII: Analysis of existing resources and gaps, and recommendations for future actions', BWC/MSP/2014/WP.1, 21 November 2014, 7pp. [+ Corr.1, 24 November 2014, 1p.]
- United Kingdom, 'Making Article VII effective: some core assumptions and key questions', BWC/MSP/2015/MX/WP.1, 6 July 2015, 3pp.
- Implementation Support Unit, Biological Weapons Convention, Background information document on 'Cooperation and Assistance, with a Particular Focus on Strengthening Cooperation and Assistance under Article X', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.1/2, 17 July 2018, 33pp.
- Implementation Support Unit, Biological Weapons Convention, 'Background information document on assistance,
response and preparedness', BWC/MSP/2018/MX.4/2, 26 July 2018, 17pp.
- Biological Weapons Convention, 2018 BWC Meeting of Experts on Cooperation and Assistance, with a Particular Focus on Strengthening Cooperation and Assistance under Article X, 7-8 August 2018.
- Biological Weapons Convention, 2018 BWC Meeting of Experts on Assistance, Response and Preparedness, 14-15 August 2018.
- Biological Weapons Convention, 2019 BWC Meeting of Experts on Cooperation and Assistance, with a Particular Focus on Strengthening Cooperation and Assistance under Article X, 29-30 July 2019.
- Biological Weapons Convention, 2019 BWC Meeting of Experts on Assistance, Response and Preparedness, 6-7 August 2019.
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COVID-19 impact report number 4
Discussion within BWC meetings in relation to disease surveillance
Published Wednesday 1st July 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 4
- Secretariat, Biological Weapons Convention, 'Mechanisms being implemented for Disease Surveillance by Intergovernmental Organizations (World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health / Office International des Epizooties (OIE)) and Significant Mechanisms being Implemented for Disease Surveillance by Non-Governmental Organizations', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/INF.1, 1 July 2004, 46pp.
- Sweden (on behalf of the European Union), 'Moderators' Summary of the International Workshop on Improving Cooperation Under Article X For Disease Surveillance, Detection, Diagnosis And Containment', BWC/MSP/2009/WP.1, 7 December 2009, 4pp. [The quoted text is taken from paragraph xix. The workshop was held in Brussels, Belgium 11-12 November 2009.]
- World Health Organization, International Health Regulations.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Final Document of the Seventh Review Conference [5-22 December 2011], BWC/CONF.VII/7, 13 January 2012, 59pp. [The quote about the International Health Regulations is in 'Part II. Final Declaration' at paragraph 39.]
- Biological Weapons Convention, Final Document of the Eighth Review Conference [7-25 November 2016], BWC/CONF.VIII/4, 11 January 2017, 30pp. [The quotes are from 'Part II. Final Declaration' at paragraphs 63 and 67.]
- World Health Organization, Public health response to biological and chemical weapons - WHO guidance, 2004, 340 + xvii pp.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Report of the Meeting of Experts [19-30 July 2004], BWC/MSP/2004/MX/3, 11 August 2004, 56pp. [The working papers are listed in Annex I.]
- Cited examples of MX 2004 working papers in relation to human diseases
- Australia, 'Australian Disease Surveillance and Response Systems: Humans', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.25, 20 July 2004, 9pp.
- Germany, 'Electronic Outbreak Reporting System for Public Health Surveillance in Germany', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.2, 15 July 2004, 1p.
- Germany, 'Combating Infectious Diseases - The German Way to Improve Preparedness ', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.6, 15 July 2004, 2pp.
- Italy, 'Existing mechanisms for the surveillance, detection and diagnosis of infectious human diseases in Italy', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.62, 28 July 2004, 9pp.
- Netherlands, 'Surveillance and (Early) Detection of Infectious Diseases in Humans in the Netherlands', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.73, 15 July 2004, 5pp.
- South Africa, 'Human Infectious Disease Surveillance', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.12, 15 July 2004, 6pp.
- Ukraine, 'National system of epidemiological surveillance in Ukraine', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.47, 22 July 2004, 4pp.
- Ukraine, 'System of delivering information on infectious disease incidence and outbreaks of infectious diseases in Ukraine ', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.48, 22 July 2004, 3pp.
- United Kingdom, 'Prevention, Investigation and Control of Human Infectious Disease', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.21, 20 July 2004, 7pp.
- Cited examples of MX 2004 working papers in relation to animal diseases
- Australia, 'Disease Surveillance in Australia: Animal Diseases', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.28, 20 July 2004, 2pp.
- Australia, 'Improving Regional Surveillance Efforts: Animal Health - Australia's Contribution', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.29, 20 July 2004, 9pp.
- Australia, 'An Australian Framework for Responses to Unusual Outbreaks of Animal Disease', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.32, 20 July 2004, 8pp.
- Italy, 'Existing mechanisms for the surveillance, detection and diagnosis of infectious animal diseases in Italy', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.61, 28 July 2004, 8pp.
- Italy, 'Existing mechanisms for responding to and mitigating the effects of cases of alleged use of biological or toxin weapons or suspicious outbreaks of infectious animal diseases in Italy', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.67, 28 July 2004, 9pp.
- Russia, 'On the Epizootological Monitoring System in the Russian Federation', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.45, 23 July 2004, 4pp.
- South Africa, 'Animal Disease Surveillance in South Africa', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.14, 15 July 2004, 6pp.
- Thailand, 'Animal disease surveillance and response in Thailand', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.65, 27 July 2004, 3pp.
- United Kingdom, 'Animal Disease Control in the United Kingdom', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.22, 20 July 2004, 5pp.
- Cited examples of MX 2004 working papers in relation to plant diseases
- Australia, 'Disease Surveillance in Australia: Plant Diseases', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.30, 20 July 2004, 4pp.
- Australia, 'PLANTPLAN:
Australian Emergency Plant Pest Response Plan ', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.33, 20 July 2004, 2pp.
- Japan, 'Detection and Monitoring Survey of Invasive Plant Pests in Japan', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.34, 20 July 2004, 4pp.
- South Africa, 'Plant Health Surveillance in South Africa', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.13, 15 July 2004, 9pp.
- United Kingdom, 'Plant Pest and Disease Control in the United Kingdom', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.23, 20 July 2004, 5pp.
- Cited examples of MX 2004 working papers covering more than one of these areas
- China, 'Surveillance of infectious diseases', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.18*, 27 July 2004, 4pp.
- Cuba, 'Strengthening of the national regulatory activity as a mechanism for the surveillance, detection, diagnosis and combating of infectious diseases affecting humans, animals and plants', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.52, 26 July 2004, 5pp.
- Germany, 'Reporting and Surveillance of Diseases in Germany', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.5, 15 July 2004, 5pp.
- Germany, 'Diagnostic Tools and Structures for Detecting Suspicious Outbreaks of Infectious Diseases', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.9, 15 July 2004, 9pp.
- Sweden, 'Improving International Capabilities for Responding to, Investigating, and Mitigating the Effects of Cases of Alleged Use of Biological or Toxin Weapons or Suspicious Outbreaks of Disease - The Need for Enhanced Co-Operation Between Law Enforcement, Defence, and Public Health Actors', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.16, 16 July 2004, 4pp.
- MX 2004 working papers on lessons learned from earlier outbreaks
- Canada, 'Avian Influenza in Canada 2004', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.78, 30 July 2004, 6pp.
- Canada, 'Impacts of the BSE Incident in Canada', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.79, 30 July 2004, 7pp.
- Canada, 'SARS: A Canadian Perspective on Lessons Learned', BWC/MSP/2004/MX/WP.80, 30 July 2004, 7pp.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Report of the Meeting of Experts [24-28 August 2009], BWC/MSP/2009/MX/3, 16 October 2009, 42pp. [The working papers are listed in Annex I.]
- Iraq, 'Disease Surveillance, Detection, Diagnosis and Containment in Iraq', BWC/MSP/2009/MX/WP.28, 28 August 2009, 2pp.
- Georgia & USA, 'Global and Regional Disease Surveillance Networks' Convergence at the National Level', BWC/MSP/2009/MX/WP.12, 19 August 2009, 6pp.
- Indonesia & Norway, 'Co-Chairs' Summary of the International Workshop on the Biological Weapons Convention Supporting Global Health: Reducing Biological Risks by Building Capacity in Health Security', BWC/MSP/2009/MX/WP.5, 5 August 2009, 2pp. [The workshop was held in Oslo 18-19 June 2009.]
- Implementation Support Unit, Biological Weapons Convention, BWC Compendium of National Approaches to Disease Surveillance, Detection, Diagnosis, and Containment of Infectious Diseases (including efforts to Build Capacity), 2009.
- Republic of Korea, 'Epidemiological characteristics and multi-sectoral countermeasures of MERS-CoV Outbreak in Korea', presentation to a side event of the Meeting of Experts, 13 August 2015, 46 slides.
- Background reading for report 4, listed in chronological order
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COVID-19 impact report number 5
A snapshot of pandemic lessons for the Biological Weapons Convention
Published Wednesday 8th July 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 5
- Background reading for report 5, listed in chronological order
- Ben Oppenheim, Mark Gallivan, Nita K Madhav, Naor Brown, Volodymyr Serhiyenko, Nathan D Wolfe, Patrick Ayscue, 'Assessing global preparedness for the next pandemic: development and application of an Epidemic Preparedness Index', BMJ Global Health, vol 4, issue 1, 29 January 2019, 9pp.
- Kathryn H Jacobsen, 'Will COVID-19 generate global preparedness?', The Lancet, vol 395, 28 March 2020, pp 1013-14. [This article was posted online on 18 March 2020 and relates to the article listed below.]
- Nirmal Kandel, Stella Chungong, Abbas Omaar and Jun Xing, 'Health security capacities in the context of COVID-19 outbreak: an analysis of International Health Regulations annual report data from 182 countries', The Lancet, vol 395, 28 March 2020, pp 1047-53. [This article was posted online on 18 March 2020.]
- Security Council Report, 'Security Council Resolution on COVID-19', What's In Blue, 30 June 2020.
- United Nations Security Council, 'COVID-19 "Profoundly Affecting Peace across the Globe", Says Secretary-General, in Address to Security Council', press release SC/14241, 2 July 2020.
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COVID-19 impact report number 6
Implications of the pandemic for the practicalities of BWC meetings
Published Wednesday 15th July 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 6
- Background reading for report 6, listed in chronological order
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COVID-19 impact report number 7
Pandemic influences on possible agenda topics for BWC meetings
Published Wednesday 22nd July 2020
- Documents referred to in COVID-19 impact report 7
- Implementation Support Unit, Biological Weapons Convention.
- Biological Weapons Convention, Assistance and Cooperation Database [commonly known as the "Article X database"].
- France and India, 'Proposal for establishment of a database for assistance in the framework of Article VII of the Biological Weapons Convention', BWC/MSP/2015/MX/WP.7, 30 July 2015, 3pp.
This was followed up by: France and India, 'Proposal for establishment of a database for assistance in the framework of Article VII of the Biological Weapons Convention', BWC/MSP/2018/WP.7, 30 November 2018, 2pp.
- United Kingdom, 'The BSE Inquiry' [This was the official public inquiry into the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in the UK].
- Peter Aldhous, 'Inquiry blames missed warnings
for scale of Britain's BSE crisis', Nature, Vol 408, 2 November 2000, pp 3-5.
- Background reading for report 7, listed in chronological order
- Erik Millstone and Patrick Van Zwanenberg, 'Politics of Expert Advice: Lessons from the Early History of the BSE Saga', Science and Public Policy, 28(2), April 2001, pp 99-112.
- United States of America, 'Science and technology review for the BWC: Features of an effective process', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.3, 11 April 2016, 2pp.
- United Kingdom, 'A future science and technology review process', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.4, 11 April 2016, 2pp.
- Finland, Norway and Sweden, 'Elements on science and technology for the 2016 Review Conference - the importance of an active review process', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.7, 25 April 2016, 3pp.
- Switzerland, 'Strengthening the BWC science and technology review process', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.8, 25 April 2016, 4pp.
- Russia, 'Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention: Proposal for the establishment of a Scientific Advisory
Committee', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.2/Rev.2, 4 July 2016, 8pp.
- Switzerland, 'Strengthening the BWC science and technology review process: Considerations regarding the composition of an
S&T review body', BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.16, 19 July 2016, 4pp.
- Spain, 'Revisión de ciencia y tecnología en la CABT: elementos para un proceso políticamente independiente' [Reviewing science and technology within the BWC: elements for a politically independent process], BWC/CONF.VIII/PC/WP.27, 10 August 2016, 2pp [Spanish], 1p [English].
- Iran, 'The BTWC Review Process of Science and Technology', BWC/CONF.VIII/WP.12, 21 October 2016, 2pp.
- Switzerland, 'Need to establish a BWC Science and Technology Review Process', BWC/MSP/2017/WP.2, 17 November 2017, 2pp.
- Germany, co-sponsored by the Netherlands and Sweden, 'Rethinking the BTWC science and technology review: A renewed case for a BTWC Scientific and Technological Experts Advisory Forum (STEAF)', BWC/MSP/2019/MX.2/WP.1, 1 July 2019, 4pp.
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While a list of future topics has been prepared, these may be subject to revision depending on events and any updated understandings of what information is useful to the readership in response to events. Further ideas might well arise to either supplement or replace proposed topics.
A subscription sign-up form is available to receive future reports.
Financial support for this series of reports has been gratefully received from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland.
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