AHTEG on Risk Assessment and Risk Management: 2014-2016 Intersessional Period

In preparing for this discussion, the Secretariat made proposals for new places in the Guidance where background documents/reference materials could be linked. You may find these proposals highlighted in blue in the document on the right. Moreover, the places where background materials are currently linked, i.e. the “old places”, are highlighted in green in the attached.

As you will notice, the proposals by the Secretariat are to add background materials to each of the new text boxes as well as to individual elements for consideration. In line with the comments from the testing, this proposal would allow background materials to be linked more specifically to the places, in the Guidance, where particular topics are mentioned.

You are kindly invited to review the proposals for new places in the Guidance where background materials could be linked, as contained in the document on the right, and provide feedback during 18-25 January 2016.

Taking stock of the progress and challenges encountered by the AHTEG Sub-group

Discussions will be held between 11 and 18 July 2015
Discussions open and close at 1:00 a.m. GMT

Please refer to the note by the Secretariat and background documents on the right-hand side for more information on this discussion.

This discussion will close on 18 July 2015 at 1:00am GMT (this corresponds to the night of 17 July in western countries).

Feedback on the grouping of comments done by the Secretariat and way forward

Discussions will be held between 16 February – 2 March 2015
Discussions open and close at 1:00 a.m. GMT

In its terms of reference annexed to decision BS-VII/12, the AHTEG was mandated to revise and improve the Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms.

The Guidance was developed in response to decision BS-IV/11 by the previous AHTEG on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, in collaboration with the Online Forum on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, and has undergone a testing process, as outlined in decision BS-VI/12, based on actual cases of risk assessment. The results of the testing will form the basis for our work. The results of the testing, including a quantitative analysis of the responses, comments and original submissions, are available compiled here.

Following a request in the decision BS-VII/12, the Secretariat grouped the original comments provided through the testing into categories to facilitate the work of the AHTEG. The grouped comments are available for download as an Excel file through the link on the right (please note that the Excel file contains seven worksheets, one for comments on each section of the Guidance plus one for general comments).

This discussion will take place from 16 February to 2 March 2015 at 1:00 a.m. GMT (i.e. for countries west of the Greenwich meridian, the discussion will close on the night of Sunday, 1 March 2015).

Background document for this discussion:

Grouped comments provided through the testing of The Guidance