VERTIC’s National Implementation Measures (NIM) Programme is delighted to announce that its report “Addressing misconceptions about biological and chemical weapons and related legal frameworks” is now available in all six official UN languages. Download the report in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic here.
The main purpose of this resource is to disprove misconceptions about biological and chemical weapons and related international instruments. It addresses misconceptions about biological and chemical weapons and related legal frameworks that VERTIC staff have identified through interactions with states over 20 years’ work on these treaties, and from other sources such as the media. Each misconception is broken down into an explanation of the misconception and its implications, and how to address it. The misconceptions are then disproved through factual and legal discussions, supported by expert commentary.
The report has also been placed onto a webpage in the six languages, to ensure that relevant information is freely available in a format that is easy to access and read. This webpage and the related report were showcased during a side event to the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention on 13 December 2022, with speakers from the government of the United Kingdom, the Foundation for Strategic Research and the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.