BioSafety, Volume 2 (Paper 1), May 22nd 1996
Online Journal, URL - http://www.bdt.org.br/bioline/by
Editorial: Development of the International Technical
Guidelines for Biosafety, and the latest text of the
Guidelines.
Brian Kirsop
Received May 19th 1996 Accepted May 20th 1996
Code Number: BY96001
Size of Files:
Text: 11.4K
No associated graphics files
At Rio de Janeiro in 1992, during the course of the Earth
Summit and specifically in relation to Agenda 21,
governments agreed to consider international cooperation
on safety in biotechnology. This matter was discussed further
at the first and second Conferences of the Parties
- meetings of those governments which have signed the
Convention on Biological Diversity - in 1994 and 1995.
At the 1995 meeting, held in Jakarta, it was agreed that a
Biosafety Protocol should be developed. An Open-Ended
Ad Hoc working group of Experts was established to do this and
will meet for the first time in July 1996. This group will
follow the principles set out in the reports of earlier
working group of experts in Biosafety.
The contents of a Protocol are thus not yet agreed,
though it will certainly focus on the transfer of "living
modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology"
across national boundaries. It is proposed that the
International Guidelines developed by UNEP should be used
until the Protocol is developed and that they should
thereafter play a part in the implementation of the Protocol.
In this Editorial, the contents of the guidelines are
discussed.
Published by Bioline Publications and Science and
Technology Letters
Copyright is held by the author
Editorial Office: Biosafe@biostrat.demon.co.uk