| | english | español | français |
  Home|The Cartagena Protocol|COP-MOP|COP-MOP Decisions   Printer-friendly version

COP-MOP Decisions

BS-VI/16

<< BS-VI/15

Sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (BS COP MOP 6)

BS-VI/16.Unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms (Article 17)

The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety,
Recalling Article 17 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety,
Recalling also operational objective 1.8 of the Strategic Plan for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for the period 2011-2020, adopted as annex I to decision BS-V/16, and the programme of work for the present meeting adopted in annex II to the same decision,
Noting the existence of decisions, rules and guidelines relevant to the issue of unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms,
Also noting that the Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms is not prescriptive and does not impose any obligations on Parties,
1.Encourages Parties to use, as guidance, or apply, as appropriate, the following in their efforts to implement the measures specified in Article 17 of the Protocol and, in particular, to determine and take appropriate response measures, including emergency measures, in the event of an occurrence that leads or may lead to unintentional transboundary movement of a living modified organism that is likely to cause significant adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health: (a)Decisions that have been or may be taken in the context of identifying living modified organisms under Article 18 of the Protocol, in particular those relating to the detection of living modified organisms; (b)The Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms developed by the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Risk Assessment and Risk Management with input from the Open-Ended Online Expert Forum;
2.Urges Parties and invites other Governments and relevant organizations which have not yet done so to: (a)Make available to the Biosafety Clearing-House the relevant details of their point of contact for the purposes of receiving notifications under Article 17 of the Protocol; (b)Establish and maintain appropriate measures to prevent unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms; and (c)Establish a mechanism for emergency measures in case of unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms that are likely to have significant adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health;
3.Invites Parties and other Governments to cooperate in building the capacity, transferring the technology and exchanging information necessary to detect and respond to occurrences resulting in a release that could lead to unintentional transboundary movement of a living modified organism that is likely to have significant adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health;
4.Requests Parties and invites other Governments and relevant organizations to provide views and information to the Executive Secretary, six months prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol, on any challenges and experiences relating to the implementation of Article 17 of the Protocol and on the scope and elements of possible guidance or tools that may facilitate appropriate responses by Parties to unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms;
5.Requests the Executive Secretary to prepare a synthesis of the views referred to in paragraph 4 above for consideration by the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol.
* Note by the Secretariat. Following the adoption of this decision, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, by paragraph 1 of its decision XI/10, decided "to maintain the current periodicity of its meetings until 2020, and that its future meetings will take place in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020".
 
BS-VI/15