Statements of PRRI at MOP6
The 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP/6) was held from 1 – 5 October in Hyderabad, India.
As with previous MOPs, the Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI) co-organized preparatory meetings for …
The 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP/6) was held from 1 – 5 October in Hyderabad, India.
As with previous MOPs, the Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI) co-organized preparatory meetings for and facilitated participation of public researchers in this MOP6.
For more information about Preparatory meetings and PRRI statements at MOP6, please find attached the statements made by PRRI at MOP6 and the summary report of PRRI’s participation in MOP6.
To summarise these documents: early on in MOP6, PRRI expressed concerns that:
- the Protocol is hardly being used for what it was primarily set out to do, i.e. giving countries a tool for informed decisions, so that they can share in the benefits of modern biotechnology;
- some countries go beyond what the Protocol requires, thereby creating unnecessary barriers for public research institutions to conduct research and collaborate internationally;
- regulators sometimes do not seem to take into consideration the potential and established significant benefits to farmers and the environment, and that there have been no verifiable reports of adverse effects of LMOs on human health or biodiversity;
- The MOP process sometimes seems to race ahead in producing new guidance and other documents, without proper assessment of the usefulness of past documents.
Although these concerns still remain, PRRI notes with satisfaction that during this MOP6:
- many delegations have shown awareness of the growing and urgent need to develop and deploy products of modern biotechnology for the benefit of human well being;
- MOP6 decided to test the current guidance on risk assessment that has been produced thus far and to collect and share information on socio-economic considerations.
Iran Biotechnology Information Center (IRBIC)