23 June 2016: The Republic of the Congo (Congo) and Mail are the latest countries to ratify the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Their accession brings the total number of ratifications to 35. Five more ratifications are necessary for the Supplementary Protocol’s entry into force.

Adopted at the fifth Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Protocol in Nagoya, Japan in 2010, the Supplementary Protocol provides international rules and procedures for liability and redress in the event of damage from living modified organisms (LMOs). It will enter into force once 40 countries have ratified it. In a press release, published in May 2016 at the occasion of Congo’s ratification, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Executive Secretary urged all parties to the Biosafety Protocol to ratify the Supplementary Protocol to enable its entry into force prior to the meetings of the CBD’s Conference of the Parties to the Convention and its protocols in December 2016. [CBD Press Release] [List of Parties to the Supplementary Protocol]