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RESOURCES: DOCUMENTS
1. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety official website:
www.cbd.int/biosafety
2. What does the Cartagena Protocol mean for Ireland?
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety – to which the EU is a Party and which entered into force on 11 September 2003 – is attached to the Convention on Biological Diversity (www.cbd.int). The Protocol recognises the right of any country to say "no" to GMOs on the basis of the Precautionary Principle.
This Protocol is one of the most important international treaties recently adopted. It marks the commitment of the international community to ensure the safe handling, transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms. It is an historic commitment as it is the first binding international agreement dealing with biosafety, thereby addressing novel and controversial issues. To conclude the negotiation of a treaty marks an end, but also a beginning: the beginning of an implementation process which will determine whether the results of the negotiation will, in reality, achieve the objective which originally set the negotiation process in motion. One prerequisite for the successful implementation of a treaty is an understanding of the text itself, and of its implications.
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In this regard, since the text of the Cartagena Protocol may well not be readily accessible to all the Irish stakeholders who will need to become involved with its implementation, we recommend concerned parties to obtain a copy of the excellent Explanatory Guide published by IUCN - World Conservation Union (see details above).
Global Vision Consulting Ltd. asked Rémi Parmentier (chairman of the Varda Group www.vardagroup.org and former Political Director of Greenpeace International) to summarise the implications of this Protocol for Ireland. Here is his response:
"Art 10.6 of the Protocol, which is EU law, recognises that when governments make decisions regarding the import of living modified organisms,
'Lack of scientific certainty due to insufficient relevant scientific information and knowledge regarding the extent of the potential adverse effects of a living modified organism on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in the Party of import, taking also into account risks to human health, shall not prevent that Party from taking a decision, as appropriate, with regard to the import of the living modified organism in question [Ö],in order to avoid or minimize such potential adverse effects'.
Furthermore Article 11 defining the procedure for living modified organisms intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing, also states the following (Paragraph 8):
'Lack of scientific certainty due to insufficient relevant scientific information and knowledge regarding the extent of the potential adverse effects of a living modified organism on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in the Party of import, taking into account risks to human health, shall not prevent that Party from taking a decision, as appropriate, with regard to the import of that living modified organism intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing, in order to avoid or minimize such potential adverse effects'.
These two articles are the recognition, by the international treaty that regulates the international trade in living modified organisms, of the precautionary principle whereby governments should take preventative action before environmental damage starts to occur, when there is a reasonable cause for concern.
Since the Biosafety Protocol was drafted and negotiated in the years 1999 and 2000, scientific backing to the precautionary principle has increased in the light of additional evidence on the risks of genetically modified organisms to biodiversity (e.g. the Mexican maize contamination case, among others).
A ban or embargo on GMOs in Ireland or elsewhere would therefore be fully legitimate, is backed by science, and would be in line with the provisions of the Biosafety Protocol."
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