Pearson, Graham S.

English

Bradford Scholars

 The University of Bradford Institutional Repository  This work is made available online in accordance with publisher policies. Please refer to the repository record for this item and our Policy Document available from the repository home page for further information.       Author(s): Pearson, G.S. Title: The BTWC Protocol: An Overall Evaluation       Project:  Bradford Project on Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons       Convention (BTWC) Publication year: 1999 BTWC Evaluation Papers: No. 1 Series Editor(s): Dando, M.R. and Whitby, S. Publisher: University of Bradford (http://www.brad.ac.uk)  Publisher’s repository:  http://bradscholars.ac.uk:8080/dspace  Copyright statement: © 1999 University of Bradford. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/).  1THE  BTWC PROTOCOL :  AN OVERALL EVALUATIONby Graham S. PearsonIntroduction1.  The Ad Hoc Group (AHG) is now in its fourth year of negotiation of the Biological andToxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) Protocol and in its second year of developing the textof the draft Protocol.   The past year has seen a clear political will to see the negotiation of theProtocol completed as soon as possible before the Fifth Review Conference in 2001.2.   It is now clear that several Articles in the draft Protocol are now largely agreed and willnot develop significantly from their current form although a certain amount of restructuringmay be agreed at a later stage.   The series of Briefing Papers produced by the University ofBradford have addressed many of the key issues being considered by the AHG in theirnegotiations; by July 1999, some 22 Briefing Papers have been presented and distributed1.3.   As the negotiations enter the endgame, our intention is to provide to the States Parties acomprehensive evaluation of the Protocol, Article by Article, in a similar way to the treatmentthat we provided for prior to the Fourth Review Conference for each Article of theConvention in the Briefing Book "Key Points for the Fourth Review Conference"2.    Our aimwould be to provide such a comprehensive evaluation to delegations for the Chairman's firsttext.   This would then be revised subsequently to provide a similar evaluation for the finalProtocol text.4.   This Evaluation Paper is the first in a new series of University of Bradford papers whichwill evaluate the individual Articles and Annexes of the Protocol as they reach the stage atwhich they are largely agreed.   These individual evaluations, updated as appropriate, will bereissued in a collated volume when the Chairman's first text appears.5.   This first evaluation paper examines the current state of play of the Protocol as a whole soas to identify both which Articles are ready for individual evaluation and also where the AHGneeds to focus its future attention.The Overall Protocol6.  The March/April 1999 session of the Ad Hoc Group saw further progress in the areas ofthe draft Protocol addressed in the meeting with particular progress being made in ArticleVII.      A revised version of the Protocol was produced.3   This was the eighth version of therolling text – previous versions having been produced in June 1997 (#35), July 1997(#36),                                                1Graham S Pearson & Malcolm R Dando (Series eds),University of Bradford, Department of Peace Studies,Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention, Briefing Papers. Available athttp://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/sbtwc2Graham S Pearson & Malcolm R Dando (eds), Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention   Key Pointsfor the Fourth Review Conference, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, November 1996.Available at http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/sbtwc3United Nations, Procedural Report of the Ad Hoc Group of the States Parties to the Convention on theProhibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weaponsand on their Destruction, BWC/AD HOC GROUP/45, 14 April 1999, Geneva.2October 1997 (#38), February 1998 (#39) and June/July 1998 (#41), September/October 1998(#43) and January 1999 (#44).7.   In most areas of the Protocol, the FOCs have had three or four complete readings of thepart of the rolling text for which they have responsibility.   The last six months has seen theengagement of all delegations in serious negotiation which is making steady although slowprogress.  An overall appreciation of the current state of progress of the Protocol issummarised in the table below in which page numbers are taken from the April 1999 draft(AHG/45).Article Pages Last amendedPreamble 5 Revised April 1999I General Provisions 0 No textII [Definitions] 11 Revised January 1999III Compliance Measures 71 III D II Declaration ClarificationProcedures revised April 1999IV Confidentiality Provisions 3 40 pairs [] Revised January 1999V Measures to redress asituation1 6 pairs [] Revised January 1999VI Assistance 3 31 pairs [] Revised January 1999VII Technical Cooperation 13 Revised April 1999VII CBMs 0 No textIX The Organization 16 Revised January 1999X National Implementation 1 10 pairs [] Revised January 1999XI - XXIII (Legal Issues) 14 48 pairs [] Largely agreed. Some revised January1999Annex A Declarations 22 Section II revised January 1999Annex B Visits 31 Revised January 1999. Not discussed.Annex C Article III measures 0 No textAnnex D Investigations 38 Largely agreed. Some revised April 1999No text for Art III investigationsAnnex E Confidentiality 10 Largely agreed.  Revised January 1999Annex F Technicalcooperation0 No textAnnex G CBMs 17 Unchanged since January 1998Appendices A to F 49 A to D concerned with declaration formats8.   The overall assessment that emerges is that in a number of areas such as legal issues,confidentiality, organization, national implementation, assistance and Annex D Investigationsthe text for the Protocol is well developed.   There are three principal areas -- Article IIICompliance Measures (and its associated Annexes and Appendices) , Article VII TechnicalCooperation and Article II [Definitions] -- where more work remains to be done.    Article IIICompliance Measures (and its Annexes and Appendices) comprises well over 100 pages ofthe draft Protocol and thus is much the largest task faced by any of the FOCs.   Article VII hasstarted to make progress in January and again in April 1999 with the recognition thatmeasures to implement Article X of the Convention also contribute to strengtheningconfidence in compliance.   Article II on [Definitions] is the only Article with its title insquare brackets and much time and energy has been devoted to arguments about the potentialimplications of definitions on the Convention.   There is much to be said in this area of3definitions for the AHG focussing first and foremost on the definitions needed to ensure thatthe measures such as declarations in the Protocol are unambiguous and hence that theinformation provided to the future BTWC Organization is comparable.9.  The development of the protocol can also be shown graphically by considering first thephases through which the text for the individual Articles and the Annexes proceed as theymature.   This is shown below:Maturity of Text No TextTextAdding optionsReducing optionsReducing [ ]THE MATURING BTWC PROTOCOLPlace holder text10.   The actual development of the various elements of the Protocol can then be shownagainst the same graph.4Maturity of Text  No TextTextTHE MATURING BTWC PROTOCOLArt VII Tech CoopnArt III Compl Meas Art IV Confidentiality Art IX Organization Annex D InvestignsMay 1999Art VI Assist Art X Natl Impl Art V , XI - XXIIIAnnex G CBMs BTWC Art III measArt I Gen Prov Art VII CBMsArt II Definitions11.  This shows that a great deal has already been achieved especially in respect of Article VIAssistance, Article X National Implementation and the various legal issues Articles V and XIthrough XXIII.   The Articles on Confidentiality (IV), Organization (IX) and the Annex D onInvestigations are also well advanced.   Progress is being made on Article III ComplianceMeasures and, in the last two sessions, on Article VII Technical Cooperation.    Overall, it isevident that an effective Protocol can be achieved.Conclusions12.   It is evident that the majority of the Articles in the draft Protocol have now reached thestage when they have had multiple readings and are unlikely to change significantly duringthe coming months as the negotiations enter the end-game.   It is therefore timely tocommence the production of a series of Evaluation Papers which will consider Article byArticle the current state of each Article of the Protocol.    These will subsequently revised andupdated to provide a Briefing Book for the complete Protocol when the Chairman's textappears.   Evaluation Paper No 2 addressing Article X National Implementation Measures isthe first in this series.

The BTWC Protocol: An Overall Evaluation

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