Red Cross Promotes Principles to Strengthen Biological and Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation Regimes

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The International Committee of the Red Cross yesterday recommended to the life sciences community a set of principles to discourage the inadvertent creation of chemical and biological weapons threats (see GSN, April 29).

“Advances in the life sciences hold great promise for humanity. There is also great risk if these same advances are put to hostile use,” it said, in a paper it distributed titled “Preventing Hostile Use of the Life Sciences: From Ethics and Law to Best Practices.”

While laws have been created in most countries to uphold the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting chemical and biological weapons use, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, “a culture of responsibility is necessary among individual life scientists” if such measures are to work, the report states.

The document recommends the following 11 principles:

— Preventing advances in life sciences from being used for poisoning and deliberate spread of infectious disease must always take precedence over personal, commercial and security interests;

— Research and its application must always be compatible with respect for, and promotion of, national and international laws;

— Undertaking well-intentioned research does not justify neglect of possible hostile use of the outcome;

— Knowledge gained from research must ultimately become universal for the progress of science; however, the potential for hostile use of some advances in life science and biotechnology may pose a fundamental dilemma about how and when knowledge is made accessible to others;

— Transparency and a culture of dialogue together constitute the most important element in minimizing the risk that advances in life sciences will be turned to hostile use;

— The increasing power and variety of advances in life sciences must be matched by commensurate objective assessments of risk and closer vigilance;

— Minimizing the risk of poisoning and deliberate spread of infectious disease requires a range of synergistic measures and so is, by necessity, a multidisciplinary endeavor;

— Those working in life sciences who voice concern and take responsible action require and deserve political and professional support and protection;

— Because of their particular characteristics, preventing the development, proliferation and use of biological weapons requires a very different approach to preventing the development, proliferation and use of chemical weapons;

— Some materials and technologies more than others lend themselves to poisoning and deliberate spread of infectious disease; and

— Materials and technologies associated with the life sciences can diffuse rapidly.

The principles were developed in consultation with experts in science and policy matters, according to the document, and are intended to serve as a framework for decisions and discussions related to scientific research, safety and security.

The International Committee of the Red Cross plays a unique role in the international community, as a guardian of international humanitarian law, acting among other ways as a monitor, promoter and watchdog.

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