DYB2011-Part-II-web

Biological and chemical weapons
on 16 December. In parallel, the President held informal plenary meetings
to discuss cross-cutting themes to address forward-looking elements of the
operation of the Convention.
Following the conclusion of the Committee of the Whole, the President
conducted a series of informal consultations. Facilitators in the following areas
assisted the President in his work: (a) Solemn Declaration; 18 (b) articles I-XV; 19
(c) science and technology; 20 (d) assistance and cooperation; 21 (e) confidencebuilding
measures (CBMs); 22 and (f) intersessional programme. 23
The President, supported by his Facilitators, continued to work on
specific elements for the Final Document, including developing a draft text.
The Credentials Committee held three meetings and adopted its report24 on
21 December.
In the course of its work, the Conference was able to draw on a number
of resources, including background information documents prepared by
the Implementation Support Unit, 25 working papers submitted by States
parties 26 and statements circulated during the Conference. On 22 December,
the Conference adopted its Final Document 27 comprising three parts:
(a) organization and work of the Conference; (b) the Final Declaration; and
(c) decisions and recommendations.
Final Declaration
The Final Declaration (see appendix III for the text) reaffirmed that
the BWC was comprehensive in its scope and that all naturally or artificially
created or altered microbial or other biological agents and toxins, as well
as their components, regardless of their origin or method of production and
whether they affected humans, animals or plants, of types and in quantities
18 Alexandre Fasel (Switzerland).
19 Judit Körömi (Hungary) and Daniel Simanjuntak (Indonesia).
20 Zahid Rastam (Malaysia).
21 Jesus Domingo (Philippines).
22 Paul Wilson (Australia).
23 Jo Adamson (United Kingdom) and Ben Steyn (South Africa).
24 BWC/CONF.VII/6.
25 These included: (1) “History and operation of the confidence-building measures”, BWC/
CONF.VII/INF.1, (2) “Compliance by States Parties with their obligations under the
Convention”, BWC/CONF.VII/INF.2, (3) “New scientific and technological developments
relevant to the Convention”, BWC/CONF.VII/INF.3, (4) “Developments since the last
Review Conference in other international organizations which may be relevant to the
Convention”, BWC/CONF.VII/INF.4, (5) “Additional understandings and agreements
reached by previous Review Conferences relating to each article of the Convention”,
BWC/CONF.VII/5, (6) “Common understandings reached by the Meetings of States
Parties during the intersessional programme held from 2007 to 2010”, BWC/CONF.
VII/6, (7) “Status of universalization of the Convention”, BWC/CONF.VII/7, and
(8) “Implementation of Article X of the Convention”, BWC/CONF.VII/8.
26 See http://www.unog.ch/bwc (accessed 12 April 2012).
27 BWC/CONF.VII/7.
55