Welcoming the improvements made to
the central portal of the Biosafety Clearing-House by the
Secretariat, in line with the strategic objectives on
information-sharing set out in the Strategic Plan for the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety for the period 2011-2020,
Further welcoming the significant
increase in the number of records, particularly summaries of risk
assessments, registered by Parties in the Biosafety Clearing-House
during the last two years,
Also welcoming the successful
contribution of the Project for Continued Enhancement of Building
Capacity for Effective Participation in the Biosafety
Clearing-House (the BCH-II Global Project), funded by the Global
Environment Facility and implemented by the United Nations
Environment Programme,
Recalling the importance of
providing, in a timely manner, complete and accurate information to
the Biosafety Clearing-House, in accordance with paragraph 1 of
decision
BS-V/2;
1.Requests the Executive
Secretary to:
(a)Collect, through Biosafety
Clearing-House national focal points and online tools made
available in the Biosafety Clearing-House, feedback from Parties,
other Governments and relevant organizations on existing capacity
and experiences in using the Biosafety Clearing-House and the
submission and retrieval of data, and to take this experience into
account for future improvements to the Biosafety
Clearing-House;
(b)Continue its collaboration with
other biosafety databases and platforms (such as those of the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) with a view to
improving the utility of the Biosafety Clearing-House as a global
mechanism for sharing information on biosafety;
(c)Continue to organize online
forums and real-time online conferences on topics relevant to
biosafety and the implementation of the Protocol and encourage
Parties to make use of them; and
(d)Encourage greater use of the
Biosafety Clearing-House to further promote and facilitate public
awareness, education and participation of relevant stakeholders
regarding the use of living modified organisms.
2.Urges Parties and invites
other Governments to fulfil their obligations under the Protocol
and the decisions of the meeting of the Parties, by updating all
incomplete published national records with the mandatory fields
required by the common formats;
3.Expresses gratitude to the
Government of the Republic of Korea for its financial and technical
contributions and for hosting subregional training workshops on the
Biosafety Clearing-House and welcomes its offer to host a
new training workshop, in partnership with the United Nations
Environment Programme.
