It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to this website which is intended to be a one-stop portal to provide information on the BTWC, its Review Conferences and the ongoing efforts to strengthen the regime. Deliberate disease – whether against humans, animals or plants – is completely prohibited by this Convention.
Transparency and making information on the Convention available to the widest possible audience are important. This website aims to raise public awareness about the BTWC and provide information to Governments, civil society, scientific institutions, and industry.
The information provided is intended to be comprehensive and objective. It includes the Convention, the Final Declarations of the successive Conferences together with other documentation for the Review Conferences as well as information on the ongoing efforts to strengthen the regime. It also posts documentation for the intersessional meetings held in 2003 to 2005. Besides, the forms to be used for the submission of the agreed annual Confidence-Building Measures are available on the site. Other relevant documents such as the 1925 Geneva Protocol are also on the site. To increase the utility of the website for all users, these documents are available to the extent possible in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
This website needs to be nurtured and sustained, and I am pleased that the Department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford is able to host this website. As an independent and impartial agency, the Department of Peace Studies has demonstrated its understanding of the importance of strengthening the Convention. They have produced two Briefing Books addressing key points of the Fourth and Fifth Review Conferences, numerous Review Conference Papers and more than 80 briefing and evaluation papers providing information, analysis and text for the delegations. This BTWC website will, however, be separate from the existing Department of Peace Studies website on Strengthening the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. In order to maximise the utility of this website, the Department of Peace Studies intends to closely consult with the President of the Sixth Review Conference as well as the Government of Canada.
I would like to express my very sincere thanks to the Government of Canada for developing this website and to the University of Bradford for taking on the nurturing and sustaining of this website.
November 2006
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