VERTIC’s Co-Programme Director for National Implementation Sonia Drobysz and Legal Officer Thomas Brown participated in the BACAC Conference on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned in Tbilisi, Georgia from 3-7 October. The team led a number of workshops on legislation and engaged with regional partners.

Organised by the Biosafety Association of Central Asia and the Caucasus (BACAC)
alongside the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative, the US Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program and the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, the conference explored lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic for Central Asia and the Caucasus. The team led two pre-conference sessions exploring lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak for the BWC regime as well as a main conference session on general legislative trends from the pandemic. They further held a dedicated roundtable discussion to seek the input of regional experts for an upcoming white paper on legislative recommendations in relation to COVID-19