BWC 7 th RevCon Proposal: Biopreparedness Legal Task Force

1. BWC 7thRevCon Proposal:Biopreparedness Legal Task Force Professor Barry Kellman International Security & Biopolicy Institute

2. BWC Article VII • “Each State Party to this Convention undertakes to provide or support assistance … to any Party to the Convention which ... has been exposed to danger as a result of violation of the Convention.” • Strengthening Article VII can: • Save lives • Promote public health and natural disease response • Build multilateral confidence in the BWC

3. “Assistance” = PreparednessPost-attack assistance is NOT optimal • Assistance must be linked to disease detection and diagnosis • Specialized vaccines & other medical countermeasures (MCMs) cannot be mass produced quickly • Assistance without comprehensive logistical planning will chaotically waste time and resources • Recipients of assistance must have command and control structures in place with trained personnel

4. Global Unpreparedness • Most nations face substantial inadequacies: • Disease surveillance and early warning • Diagnostic and forensic capacities • Law enforcement-public health collaboration • MCMs are altogether insufficient. Consider smallpox – • Worldwide, about 800 million doses, 12% of world’s population • 80% of all doses are in six countries • 10 nations have stockpiles for their populations • Nearly all other countries have little or no vaccine • 7 months would be needed for full surge production • No distribution system to get MCMs to victims

5. 6 Legal Barriers To Preparedness: 1-3 • Legal barriers to information sharing, based on proprietary and national security interests, undercut accurate appreciation of outbreaks. • Inconsistent sampling and transport standards complicate diagnostics, cause delay, and impede legal use of evidence. • Potential liability for the risks of novel medicines disincentivize engagement of biodefense sectors to develop new vaccines and medications.

6. 6 Legal Barriers To Preparedness: 4 - 6 • Inconsistent licensing standards among nations can delay or restrict approvals of capacities in an emergency. • Elaborate arrangements for stockpiling and distribution of capacities lack command control structures that assign responsibilities. • Inadequate law enforcement authorization will undercut multilateral collaboration to limit attack consequences, apprehend perpetrators, and restore order.

7. Recommendation: Establish a Biopreparedness Legal Task Force • Address legal challenges comprehensively within framework of international law • Task force should comprise an elite and diverse group of legal scholars with expertise pertaining to: • Information sharing • Licensing of medications • Trans-national movement of goods and persons • Regulation of emergency services and critical infrastructure sectors, and • Challenges of national implementation in the world’s major legal systems.

8. Benefits of Strengthening Legal Foundations of Biopreparedness • Fortify the norm against intentional infliction of disease; • Enhance the framework for public health preparedness and global delivery of needed medical resources; • Engage private sector interests in development of international law and counter-terrorism policy planning; • Define the important role of international law in promoting peace and security with regard to the challenges posed by rapidly advancing scientific and technological progress, now and into the future.