Side Event

Biosafety and Accountability

Organizer
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific

Date and Time
2 October 2012 13:15 - 14:45

Meeting
Sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

This event will focus on the issue of accountability in the context of biosafety. As new technologies are being rapidly deployed in food and farms, the law and policy regimes to regulate them are still not fully in place. Domestic biosafety regimes have to deal with actual and potential threats from genetically engineered organisms and their products. Asia is fast becoming the new centre for the biotechnology industry. This has implications for not only Asia's farmers and local communities, but the world at large in terms of social, economic, environmental and other impacts. As risks are being transported across borders, responsibilities are not. As and when things 'go wrong', who will be held accountable? How and where will the promoters and regulators of modern biotechnology be held responsible? And will such responsibility regimes be able to undo or make good the damage? This side event will seek to explore these questions. It will facilitate a live experience-sharing from different countries which are likely to be at the receiving end of the modern biotechnology enterprises from both the private and the public sector in Asia. The forum will make linkages to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress. It will also situate the discussion in the contexts of the Precautionary Principle and serious attempts at both corporate and government accountability at other fora. Organisers: Econexus, Third World Network, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific