UN Secretary-General Guterres Calls For Action To Avert Use Of Biological Weapons

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for action in three areas to avert a biological weapons disaster.

According to Xinhua, on Monday, Guterres made the appeal in a video message to participants at the Ninth Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference in Geneva.

The first area of action, he said, is to give teeth to the convention's accountability provisions to ensure that scientific advances are not used for hostile purposes.

“Let us ensure that science and technology are used to benefit humanity rather than to destroy it and that peace is at the heart of all scientific development and cooperation,” he said.

Second, reconsider verification and compliance in light of today's threats. Over the last five decades, the world has changed dramatically. He said that the convention should evolve alongside it.

Third, increase the convention's financial and human resources to carry out this critical work, Guterres added.

“The international community generously supports global regimes to combat chemical weapons and nuclear proliferation. We should do the same for biological weapons, increasing the convention's budget significantly,” he added.

He also said that the time has come to close every door to developing and using these weapons.

He said that when the Biological Weapons Convention was open for signature fifty years ago, the world stood united and declared that the deliberate use of disease as a weapon was an affront to humanity. Guterres went on to say that the convention affirms humanity's conscience.

“The world was brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic. Consider a different type of disease, one that is both intentionally designed and has the potential to spread even faster through the global population,” he said

He concludes by saying that biological weapons do not exist in science fiction. They are an obvious and present danger. That is why strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention is more important than ever.