Why in News?
- At a conference marking 50 years of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the External Affairs Minister warned that the world is “not adequately prepared” for bioterrorism.
- He highlighted risks from non-state actors using biological agents and emphasised placing the Global South at the centre of global biosecurity strategies.
Description:
- Bioterrorism: Deliberate use of biological agents (viruses, bacteria, toxins) to cause harm.
- WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction, such as Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons.
- Dual-use technologies: Civilian technologies that can be misused for biological weaponisation.
About the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC):
1. First multilateral disarmament treaty banning an entire class of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
2. Opened for signature: April 1972; Entered into force: 26 March 1975.
3. Formal title: Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction.
4. Prohibits development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling, and use of biological/toxin weapons.
5. Supplements the 1925 Geneva Protocol (which only prohibited “use”).
6. Negotiated at the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (Geneva).
7. Membership: 188 States Parties; 4 Signatories (Egypt, Haiti, Somalia, Syria). India is a Party.
Types of Biological Agents (Examples):
- Anthrax, Plague, Botulinum toxin, fungi & viral pathogens.
- Consequences: mass casualties, food shortages, ecological damage, economic collapse, public panic.
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