Held on the margins of the Ninth session of the Working Group for Strengthening the Convention, this side event will unpack select aspects linked to the designing of a science and technology advisory mechanism for the BWC. The session will draw on the experience of comparable bodies to show the benefits of science and technology review mechanisms, highlight their value, and inform and support ongoing design processes under the BWC. The event will focus in particular on questions surrounding the identification of topics within a scientific advisory body, the dynamics of consensus in such bodies, as well as questions surrounding their composition.
This event is organized as part of UNIDIR’s Science and Technology Watchtower project, and in collaboration with the Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit and its joint series of Technical Briefs on emerging technologies and the Biological Weapons Convention.