Funded by the European Union

NIM Senior Legal Officer Thomas Brown and Legal Officer Eliza Walsh held a workshop on biosecurity legal frameworks for members of the NACW in Phnom Penh from 14-15 January 2025. The workshop was in the framework of the European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative Project 81 BIOSEC: Enhanced Biosecurity in South East Asia.

During this workshop, NIM staff led sessions on biosecurity legal frameworks, including Cambodia’s national system, a table top exercise to  identify gaps in Cambodia’s legal framework, and overview of the Biological Weapons Convention in the context of biosecurity. The second day of the workshop focused on biosecurity codes of conduct including presentations on what is a biosecurity code of conduct, different approaches Cambodia could take for a code of conduct and discussion sessions amongst the participants of next steps and actionable items.

The project is being delivered in partnership with and supporting ongoing efforts in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. VERTIC forms part of a pan-European consortium led by Sustainable Criminal Justice Solutions Europe (SCJS, Belgium) and including Public Health England (PHE), the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco and the European CBRNE Center Umeå University.

For more information on Project 81, see the project website here.