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BWC 7 th RevCon Proposal: Biopreparedness Legal Task Force

This proposal advocates for the establishment of a Biopreparedness Legal Task Force aimed at addressing the critical legal barriers impeding effective disease response and preparedness under the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). It emphasizes the need for robust legal frameworks supporting information sharing, licensing, and emergency regulation. By enhancing Article VII, nations can promote public health, improve disease detection, and ensure rapid medical countermeasure access. A coordinated international approach can mitigate the risks posed by biological threats and advance global health security.

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BWC 7 th RevCon Proposal: Biopreparedness Legal Task Force

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  1. BWC 7thRevCon Proposal:Biopreparedness Legal Task Force Professor Barry Kellman International Security & Biopolicy Institute

  2. BWC Article VII • “Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to provide or support assistance … to any Party to the Convention which ... has been exposed to danger as a result of violation of the Convention.” • Strengthening Article VII can: • Save lives • Promote public health and natural disease response • Build multilateral confidence in the BWC

  3. “Assistance” = PreparednessPost-attack assistance is NOT optimal • Assistance must be linked to disease detection and diagnosis • Specialized vaccines & other medical countermeasures (MCMs) cannot be mass produced quickly • Assistance without comprehensive logistical planning will chaotically waste time and resources • Recipients of assistance must have command and control structures in place with trained personnel

  4. Global Unpreparedness • Most nations face substantial inadequacies: • Disease surveillance and early warning • Diagnostic and forensic capacities • Law enforcement-public health collaboration • MCMs are altogether insufficient. Consider smallpox – • Worldwide, about 800 million doses, 12% of world’s population • 80% of all doses are in six countries • 10 nations have stockpiles for their populations • Nearly all other countries have little or no vaccine • 7 months would be needed for full surge production • No distribution system to get MCMs to victims

  5. 6 Legal Barriers To Preparedness: 1-3 • Legal barriers to information sharing, based on proprietary and national security interests, undercut accurate appreciation of outbreaks. • Inconsistent sampling and transport standards complicate diagnostics, cause delay, and impede legal use of evidence. • Potential liability for the risks of novel medicines disincentivize engagement of biodefense sectors to develop new vaccines and medications.

  6. 6 Legal Barriers To Preparedness: 4 - 6 • Inconsistent licensing standards among nations can delay or restrict approvals of capacities in an emergency. • Elaborate arrangements for stockpiling and distribution of capacities lack command control structures that assign responsibilities. • Inadequate law enforcement authorization will undercut multilateral collaboration to limit attack consequences, apprehend perpetrators, and restore order.

  7. Recommendation: Establish a Biopreparedness Legal Task Force • Address legal challenges comprehensively within framework of international law • Task force should comprise an elite and diverse group of legal scholars with expertise pertaining to: • Information sharing • Licensing of medications • Trans-national movement of goods and persons • Regulation of emergency services and critical infrastructure sectors, and • Challenges of national implementation in the world’s major legal systems.

  8. Benefits of Strengthening Legal Foundations of Biopreparedness • Fortify the norm against intentional infliction of disease; • Enhance the framework for public health preparedness and global delivery of needed medical resources; • Engage private sector interests in development of international law and counter-terrorism policy planning; • Define the important role of international law in promoting peace and security with regard to the challenges posed by rapidly advancing scientific and technological progress, now and into the future.

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