Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress (Ad Hoc Group on Liability and Redress)
According to
decision BS-I/8, the Ad Hoc Group on Liability and Redress is composed of representatives nominated by Parties to the Protocol, is open to the participation as observers of any State not a Party to the Protocol, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and industry. It shall undertake the following tasks:
Review the information relating to liability and redress for damage resulting from transboundary movements of LMOs;
Analyse general issues relating to the potential and/or actual damage scenarios of concerns, and application of international rules and procedures on liability and redress to the damage scenarios;
Elaborate options for elements of rules and procedures on liability and redress, including definition and nature of damage, valuation of damage to biodiversity and to human health, threshold of damage, causation, channeling of liability, roles of Parties of import and export, standard of liability, mechanisms of financial security and right to bring claims.
The Ad Hoc Group on Liability and Redress was to report on its activities to the COP-MOP and complete its work by 2007.
The
first meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on Liability and Redress took place from 25 to 27 May 2005 in Montreal, Canada back-to-back with the COP-MOP 2. In order to undertake preparatory work for this meeting the Executive Secretary convened
a meeting of Technical Group of Experts on Liability and Redress, which took place from 18 to 20 October 2004 in Montreal.
In its
decision BS-II/11, COP-MOP agreed that the second meeting of the Working Group should be convened before the third meeting of the COP-MOP.
The
second meeting of the Working Group on Liability and Redress was held from 20-24 February 2006 in Montreal, Canada. At this meeting, the Working Group developed an indicative list of criteria for the assessment of the effectiveness of any rules and procedures referred to in Article 27 of the Protocol. These are contained in annex I to document
UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/3/10.
The Working Group also considered a synthesis of views and proposed text on the approaches, options and issues from the annex to the report of the first meeting of the Working Group. In particular, the Working Group developed different options for operational text on scope, damage and causation. The outcome of these deliberations is contained in annex to document
UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/3/10.
In its
decision BS-III/12, COP-MOP welcomed the progress made by the Working Group to date and agreed that three five-day meetings of the Working Group should be convened before the COP-MOP 4 in order to enable the Working Group to complete its work in accordance with the indicative work plan in the annex to decision BS-I/8, i.e. by 2007.
The
third meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on Liability and Redress took place from 19-23 February 2007 in Montreal, Canada. At this meeting, the Working Group considered, among other things, a blueprint for a COP-MOP decision on international rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress for damage resulting from transboundary movements of living modified organisms. This is contained in annex I to the report of the meeting, document
UNEP/CBD/BS/WG-L&R/3/3.
During this meeting, the Working Group discussed a synthesis of proposed operational texts on approaches, options and issues identified (sections IV to XI) pertaining to liability and redress in the context of Art. 27 of the Biosafety Protocol. Several representatives made further submissions of operational texts. The proposed texts were integrated into the working draft which is contained in annex II of the report of the meeting.
The
fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Liability and Redress was held from 22-26 October 2007 in Montreal, Canada. At this meeting, the Working Group streamlined the operational texts on approaches and options identified pertaining to liability and redress in the context of Article 27 of the Biosafety Protocol. The blueprint considered at the last meeting of the Working Group was also revised to reflect the changes agreed by the Working Group to the form and contents of some of the elements that were under consideration. The revised blueprint is attached to the report of the meeting as Annex I.
The Working Group has requested the Co-Chairs to do further streamlining on certain sections of the working document, attached to the report of the meeting as Annex II, and to produce a revised working draft for consideration by the Working Group at its fifth meeting. The report of the Working Group is contained in document
UNEP/CBD/BS/WG-L&R/4/3.
The
fifth meeting of the Working Group on Liability and Redress took place from 12 to 19 March 2008 in Cartagena, Colombia. At this meeting, the Working Group revised the working draft on the elaboration of options for rules and procedures in the context of Article 27 of the Protocol. During this meeting, a small Friends of the Co-Chairs group was established to further the negotiations. The group agreed to some core elements and reduced options for operational text identified pertaining to liability and redress. These outcomes are contained in annex II to the report of the meeting in document
UNEP/CBD/BS/WG-L&R/5/3. The Working Group also agreed to convene a meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs prior to COP-MOP 4.
The meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs was convened in Bonn, Germany from 7 to 10 May 2008. The Friends continued to streamline the negotiating text and the outcomes were forwarded to COP-MOP 4 as document
UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/4/11/Add.1.
COP-MOP 4 considered the final report of the Working Group and noted with appreciation the work undertaken by the Working Group over the course of its four years of negotiations. The Parties adopted the text from the meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs as the basis for work during COP-MOP 4 and established a contact group to continue the negotiations.
The contact group made significant progress in particular as regards to the legal nature of the rules and procedures on liability and redress.
In its
decision BS-IV/12, COP-MOP adopted the negotiating text as revised by the contact group (see the annex to the decision) as the basis for further work. In addition, the Parties agreed to establish a Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs to continue the process. The first meeting of this Group is to be held in early 2009. A second meeting, if deemed necessary by the Co-Chairs, will be convened in early 2010.
The
first meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress was held from 23 to 27 February 2009 in Mexico City, Mexico. The meeting further negotiated international rules and procedures on liability and redress for damage resulting from transboundary movements of living modified organisms in the context of the Protocol, based on the proposed operational texts contained in the Annex to
decision BS-IV/12 of the fourth meeting of the Parties to the Protocol. The Group agreed to work towards a legally binding instrument in the form of a supplementary protocol with the understanding that the final decision in this regard would only be taken by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol. It produced a draft text for a supplementary protocol on liability and redress to the Biosafety Protocol, which will serve as a basis for further negotiations. The Group decided to have a second meeting from the 8 to 12 February 2010.
The
second meeting of the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress in the context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was held from 8 to 12 February 2010 at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Group further negotiated international rules and procedures on liability and redress for damage resulting from transboundary movements of living modified organisms based on the draft text for a supplementary protocol on liability and redress to the Biosafety Protocol as contained in the report of its first meeting. The Group agreed to hold a third meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 15 to 19 June 2010.
