The fourth meeting of the Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety met from 22-26 October 2007, in Montreal, Canada.

The Working Group focused on the elaboration of options for rules and procedures referred to in Article 27 of the Protocol, based on a working draft compiled by Co-Chairs René Lefeber (the Netherlands) and Jimena Nieto (Colombia), synthesizing submissions of operational texts with respect to approaches and options identified. During the week, delegates addressed most sections in the Co-Chairs’ synthesis, focusing on streamlining options for operational text related to damage, administrative approaches and civil liability. As a result, the working document was reduced from 80 pages, in the Co-Chairs’ synthesis, to 53 pages, in Annex II of the meeting’s report. Many participants felt that this was a good outcome and that the Working Group had produced a document that could be used as the basis for negotiations at its next meeting. The Co-Chairs were also given a mandate to streamline specific parts of Annex II during the intersessional period. While happy with the results, several delegates indicated that expeditious progress is essential given that the Working Group is scheduled to hold only one more meeting before reporting to the fourth Meeting of the Parties in May 2008 in Bonn, Germany.
Link to further information
IISD RS coverage of the meeting