Liability and Redress for Damage Resulting from GMOs: The Negotiations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

About the Book

Concerns over the potential health, environmental and socio-economic risks posed by genetically engineered crops and food have been at the heart of longstanding calls for an international regime to assign responsibility for and deal with any damage caused by these genetically modified organisms (GMOs), specifically to provide compensation or take redress measures. The need for such a regime was finally realised in October 2010 with the adoption of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

This landmark treaty was the culmination of long and difficult negotiations among Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. This book, a collection of contemporaneous reports from Third World Network publications, charts the challenging journey from the setting of the negotiating mandate in 2004 to the 2010 adoption of the liability and redress accord. While the agreement is seen to fall short of what its proponents had originally envisaged, it remains a beginning in the journey for liability and redress. Remaining gaps will need to be addressed at the national level, or through future work under the Supplementary Protocol.


Contents

Introduction

First Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP-MOP 1) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23-27 February 2004)

Biosafety Protocol takes bold moves

First meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Liability and Redress under the Biosafety Protocol
(Montreal, Canada, 25-27 May 2005)

Biosafety talks end without decision on documentation of GMOs

Fifth Meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Cartagena, Colombia, 12-19 March 2008)

No agreement on liability regarding GMOs, another meeting planned
 
Meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs of the fifth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Bonn, Germany, 7-9 May 2008)

Progress after tough talks on liability regime for GMOs

First meeting of the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress  in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Mexico City, Mexico, 23-27 February 2009)

Talks on liability and redress for GMOs make some progress

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
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 8-12 February 2010)

International treaty on liability for LMO damage in sight

Third meeting of the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15-19 June 2010)

Treaty on liability for GMO damage closer to completion

Fourth meeting of the Group of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Nagoya, Japan, 6-8 October 2010)

New treaty on liability for GMO damage

Fifth Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP-MOP 5) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
(Nagoya, Japan, 11-15 October 2010)

Biosafety Protocol steps forward

Appendix 1

Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Appendix 2

Submission from Third World Network to the Open-Ended Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the Context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (20 November 2005)

Appendix 3

Comments by Third World Network on the Draft Guidelines on Civil Liability and Redress in the Field of Damage Resulting from Transboundary Movements of Living Modified Organisms – Proposal of Co-Chairs (31 May 2010)

Appendix 4

The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress: Process, provisions and key issues for developing countries