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pacity enhancements are needed and act as a facilitator
for linking up states and organisations that can
partner on capacity-building assistance. To date, there
has been no institutional go-to-point for States Parties
to request support for treaty implementation. The MX
will go a long way in raising awareness amongst States
Parties on what others are doing; but without an instrument
for states to reconnect, the results of the intersessional
process will be minimal.
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Funding is also critical. Year after intersessional year,
for example, some low-income States Parties have
been unable to attend simply because they do not have
the resources to send delegates and experts to Geneva.
Consequently, relevant experts in these countries
miss out on the networks and information critical for
building up national efforts and domestic surveillance
systems. This year, twenty experts from nine countries
were sponsored by Canada, the UK and U.S. to ensure
broader participation. These three countries are part
of the broader Group of Eight (G8) countries 1 which
have been working to-
gether and bilaterally
with other countries on
a variety of biological
activities from biosafety
and biosecurity upgrades,
research projects
to training and disease surveillance as per their
commitments to the G8 Global Partnership Against
the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
2 . Other States Parties also provide capacity
building assistance. India notably both provides and
receives capacity building assistance and currently has
a pan-African assistance project.
Denmark’s Expertise
Denmark’s intervention at the intersessional meetings
has been nominal to date. It is unfortunate as it is in
the area of disease surveillance that Denmark truly can
provide a specialized niche in building capacity internationally.
Denmark’s Statens Serum Institute (SSI) for
instance focuses on the monitoring, advising and educating
the incidence, prevention and treatment of infectious
diseases, diagnosis of infectious diseases, and
preparedness against biological (terrorist) use. Currently
working to link up the institute with microbiology
laboratories and field sites across Denmark, SSI is
establishing a shared national database for laboratories
to directly input information into a common server. It is
anticipated that the database will be fully operational
by the end of 2009. Similarly, on the animal side, Denmark
is especially known for its transparent process
of full disclosure on animal disease outbreaks: within
minutes or few hours of a confirmed case of disease,
the information is posted on the website of the Danish
Food and Veterinary Administration (FVST). It is this
practical experience that smaller, low-income countries
require to be able to meet the basic provisions set by
the OIE, for example, where countries are expected
to report disease outbreaks within 24 hours. Without
laboratories, diagnostic tools, training and network systems
however, these countries cannot meet these vital
and basic provisions.
A challenging task
After 34 years, the Convention remains the foundation
of international commitment to the principles and
norms that biological science is to be used exclusively
for peaceful purposes. Despite the BWC being the first
international treaty to ban an entire category of weapons,
it lacks the institutional and financial support that
accompanies its chemical and nuclear weapons’ treaty
...delegates in Geneva stressed that international
efforts should be directed towards early detection,
diagnosis, outbreak identification and response
siblings. With 163 States Parties at different levels of
implementation and no treaty compliance mechanism,
the task for global action is challenging. Disease surveillance
is paramount to well-functioning national and
international preparedness and response to deliberate
or natural outbreaks. An accessible database for States
Parties is a fundamental first step for partnering while
countries such as Denmark that have the practical ex-
IPMONOPOLET NR 6 TEMA
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