News from 2006

• BWC edition of Disarmament Forum now available: “Toward a Stronger BTWC”, an edition of the UNIDIR publication Disarmament Forum devoted to the Sixth Review Conference is now available online.
• Montenegro is State Party to BWC: the Depositaries have announced that Montenegro is a State Party to the BWC in succession to the former state of Serbia and Montenegro, with effect from 3 June 2006. This brings the number of States Parties to 156.
• List of speakers open: the list of speakers for the General Debate (20-21 Nov) at the Sixth Review Conference is open for inscription. Delegations wishing to inscribe on the list are invited to contact the Secretariat.
• Programme of work for the Sixth Review Conference: the President-designate of the Sixth Review Conference has written to all States Parties and signatories enclosing a draft indicative programme of work. The draft indicative programme will be prepared as an official document for the opening session of the Review Conference on 20 November.
• Advance versions of working papers available: papers from the European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Norway and a group of Latin American countries are available on the advance circulation page. More papers will be added as they are submitted.
• Update of UN Secretary-General’s CBW investigation mechanism: on 8 September the General Assembly adopted resolution 60/288 setting out the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Among other things, the Member States agreed to “encourage the Secretary-General to update the roster of experts and laboratories, as well as the technical guidelines and procedures, available to him for the timely and efficient investigation of alleged use”.
• New WHO biosecurity publication: the World Health Organization has released “Biorisk management: Laboratory biosecurity guidance“, a document providing guidance on biosecurity within a biological laboratory and addressing its basic principles and best practices. WHO is inviting comments and feedback on the document.
• First background paper released: the background information document showing the additional understandings and agreements reached by previous review conferences relating to each article of the Convention (BWC/CONF.VI/INF.1) has been issued in all languages and is available for download from the official documents section of the Sixth Review Conference page.
• Deadline for submission of contributions for background papers: States Parties are requested to provide their contributions to the background information documents for the Sixth Review Conference (as decided by the Preparatory Committee – see paragraph 22 of the report) no later than 1 September 2006. Contributions should be sent to the Secretariat (see contacts).
• Appointment of provisional Secretary-General: in accordance with the invitation from States Parties (see paragraph 26 of the report of the Preparatory Committee), the Secretary-General of the United Nations has nominated Mr Tim Caughley, Director of the Geneva Branch of the Department for Disarmament Affairs, as provisional Secretary-General of the Sixth Review Conference.