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2014-10-06 |

Little progress, conflict of interests & unabated unintentional transboundary movements

Closing Statement by Civil Society at COP-MOP7

While we welcome the continued work on risk assessment and socio-economic considerations via the continuation of two AHTEGs, progress on these issues is regrettably still too little, very late and largely repetitive.

These issues are of central importance to the Protocol, and to many Parties’ implementation of biosafety. There must be no more delay in developing further guidance and guidelines in order to assist Parties in their implementation of the Protocol. Implementation is crucial to safeguarding biological diversity, human health, and the well being of peoples everywhere.

In the composition of the two extended AHTEGs, civil society demands that potential conflict of interests (including financial and other vested interests) are transparently declared and scrutinized, and that the appropriate steps are taken to avoid conflicts of interest unduly influencing decisions.

We wish to remind Parties that the work of the socio-economic AHTEG must be within the scope and objective of the Protocol, which is to contribute to ensuring an adequate level of protection with regards to LMOs that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health. The issue of the benefits of modern biotechnology is not within the scope, nor in line with the objective of this Protocol.

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