12 February 2010: The second meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs on Liability and Redress under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety convened from 8-12 February 2010, in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

The meeting attempted to conclude negotiations on international rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress for damage resulting from transboundary movements of living modified organisms (LMOs), including: a supplementary protocol on liability and redress; guidelines on civil liability; the supplementary compensation scheme; and complementary capacity-building measures. The meeting did not conclude the negotiation of a supplementary protocol, however it achieved significant progress on several of the most contentious issues, including the elaboration of a legally-binding provision on civil liability. A number of issues remain outstanding, including the definitions of “operator,” “products” of LMOs and “imminent threat of damage,” the objective, and the issue of financial security. As a result, delegates decided to convene a third meeting of the Friends of the Co-Chairs in June 2010, in order to resolve all outstanding issues so the supplementary protocol can be adopted at the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP5) to the Biosafety Protocol, to be held in October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan. [IISD RS coverage of the meeting]