Portal on Risk Assessment and Risk Management

In decision CP-11/7, the Conference of Parties serving the meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP) welcomed the outcomes of the meetings of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Risk Assessment, and also welcomed the additional voluntary guidance materials to support the case-by-case risk assessment of living modified organisms containing engineered gene drives. Parties and other stakeholders were invited to make use of the additional voluntary guidance materials in conducting relevant risk assessments and as a tool for capacity-building activities in risk assessment. The decision called for the consideration of the related issues set out in the additional voluntary guidance materials, including traditional knowledge, innovation and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities, in the decision-making process, and further called for broad international cooperation, knowledge-sharing, capacity-building and resource mobilization to support the application of the additional voluntary guidance materials. Parties and stakeholders that have used the voluntary guidance materials were invited to submit to the Executive Secretary information on their experiences and assessment of the applicability and usefulness of the materials. Further, CP-11/7 decided to establish an ad hoc technical expert group tasked with the evaluation of the needs and priorities identified by Parties through the submission of the information, as well as to extend the Open-ended Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management to support the analysis of further topics of risk assessment in accordance with the criteria set out in annex I to decision CP-9/13. The decision invited Parties to submit detailed information on their needs and priorities for further guidance materials on specific topics of risk assessment of living modified organisms, including a rationale following the criteria set out in decision CP-9/13. The COP-MOP also decided to consider at its twelfth meeting additional issues on which guidance materials on risk assessment may be needed, if any, further to the process for the identification and prioritization of specific issues pertaining to the risk assessment of living modified organisms established in decision CP-9/13, taking into account the needs and priorities identified by Parties and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice recommendation pursuant to paragraph 1 (d) of the terms of reference of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Risk Assessment (AHTEG). Subject to the availability of resources, CP-11/7 requested the Executive Secretary to synthesize the information received from Parties and stakeholders for consideration by the COP-MOP at its twelfth meeting. The Secretariat was also requested to convene online discussions of the Open-ended Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, and to synthesize the information received from Parties on their needs and priorities for further guidance materials on specific topics of risk assessment of living modified organisms and the information shared in the Open-ended Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management to support the work of the AHTEG. The decision also requested the Executive Secretary to convene at least one in-person meeting of the Expert Group before the twelfth meeting of the COP-MOP, and to convene capacity-building and development activities in support of risk assessment with a particular focus on the risk assessment of living modified organisms containing engineered gene drives.

In light of this decision, a tentative calendar of activities outlining a way forward for the implementation of the elements of the COP-MOP decision has been made available.