PAX CHRISTI INTERNATIONAL: Statement to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention Meeting of Experts

Thank you for the opportunity to address you during your Meeting of Experts seeking to strengthen the norm against misuse of the life sciences for hostile purposes. Pax Christi International is a Catholic Peace Movement inspired by Catholic Social Teaching. We strongly believe that international treaties, including the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), are essential instruments for protecting human life and dignity anywhere in the world. We are convinced that your work should ultimately contribute to human security and respect for human rights for everyone. We wish to make some concrete suggestions of direct relevance to this Meeting.

The topical scientific subject on your agenda to be addressed under your Standing Agenda item on Science and Technology for 2013 is “advances in technologies for surveillance, detection, diagnosis and mitigation of infectious diseases, and similar occurrences caused by toxins in humans, animals and plants”. We recognise that consideration of this topical subject is equally relevant to your Standing Agenda item on cooperation and assistance and in this regard, we bring to your attention some recent activities of the Physics for Development working group of the European Physical Society1 and the UNESCO International Centre for Theoretical Physics “Abu Salam”2 in building capacity for physics experiments at universities in developing countries. Topics of interest include cheap diagnostics and other healthcare technologies. Physics may not commonly generally be considered a life science, but it is a key discipline in development of diagnostics and other biosecurity enhancing technologies. We would encourage you to establish working relations with these and other relevant scientific organisations…

To read the entire statement, click here.