The first is strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the foundational multilateral treaty of the global biosecurity regime. Closing Gaps in Global Biosecurity and Biosafety RegimesThere is no integrated, comprehensive global framework to govern the risks posed by bioengineering. Strengthening the Biological Weapons ConventionOne of humanity’s signal achievements in the otherwise violent twentieth century was the negotiation of an absolute prohibition on biological weapons. Unfortunately, current measures to address the biosafety and biosecurity risks of such research appear to be uneven. Mitigating the dual-use risks of gene editing and synthetic biology will require important institutional reforms at both the national and international level.

Source: International New York Times October 16, 2024 19:29 UTC