Disarmament in Review
From 26 to 27 March 2025 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs and Justice of Congo organized a national workshop on strengthening the implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
This was the first BWC capacity-building workshop in Congo since it deposited its instrument of accession to the Convention in 1978. The Republic of the Congo has made significant progress towards BWC implementation prior to the event, in particular with the nomination of a BWC National Contact Point (NCP) in 2024. Building on this positive momentum, UNODA and the NCP of Congo worked closely together in recent months to identify concrete steps that would raise awareness of the BWC nationally and support domestic stakeholders in the preparation of Congo’s first Confidence-Building Measure (CBM) report.
The workshop was opened by the Special Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Desire Dekou Londessoko, and was attended by 30 national stakeholders representing a variety of national institutions involved in BWC implementation. During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to improve their knowledge about the rights and obligations under the BWC, including important aspects in relation to Article X of the Convention and the various opportunities for international cooperation. In its efforts to strengthen South-South collaboration, UNODA also supported participation by an expert from Mali who highlighted experiences, good practices and lessons learned in implementing the BWC, including the coordination role of the NCP and the process for the preparation and submission of CBMs. Another highlight of the workshop was the conduct of interactive group exercises enabling participants to identify the various stakeholders having key information to be provided in CBMs. This exercise was followed by discussions on national processes to prepare and submit CBMs, which often constitute an initial step towards a country’s first CBM submission.
The workshop concluded with an open discussion of concrete national steps to strengthen the BWC in the Congo, including capacity-building activities related to developing a legal and regulatory framework for BWC implementation. UNODA is looking forward to continuing working with Congolese authorities and the NCP to strengthen BWC implementation in Congo and promote dialogue among States Parties in identifying good practices.
This workshop was organized by UNODA in the framework of its programme to support the universalization and effective implementation of the BWC in Africa, funded by several member countries of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Material of Mass Destruction under its Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa (SIMBA).
