Regional Training Course on implementation of Biological Weapons Convention Opens at UN House in Doha

Doha, January 16 (QNA) - A two-day regional training course for national focal points on the implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention was opened at the United Nations House in Doha today. It aims to strengthen the implementation of the UN convention by creating a forum for discussions, exchanging information and sharing best practices between national focal points and those concerned with it in the states parties in Middle East and North Africa. The training course seeks to clarify and discuss the roles and responsibilities of the national focal points, their nomination processes, their structure and their work within the national normative framework, and to provide the opportunity to exchange information, knowledge and best practices among the national focal points on aspects related to the national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention, including aspects related to developing legislation and national action plans, preparing and presenting confidence-building measures, and enhancing communication and unity between national focal points, introducing participants to the initiatives of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in support of national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention and national focal points. The training course includes detailed guidance on the roles and responsibilities of national focal points, and practical information on all aspects of national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention, including challenges and best practices in developing legislation and action plans. It will also address inter-agency coordination, and the preparation and submission of confidence-building measures reports. In a speech during the opening of the session, Chairman of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons (NCPW) Brigadier General Dr. Abdulaziz Salmeen Al Jabri reviewed the tireless efforts of the State of Qatar to activate the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention and implement it at the national and international levels, in implementation of Article Four of the Convention in the field of its enforcement. In this regard, he highlighted that the NCPW's efforts culminated in building a multi-agency national team concerned with biosecurity, which constitutes the link in this field at the national, regional and international levels. He noted the development of a methodology for assessing biological risks at the national health level in order to build a national action plan concerned with biosecurity and achieve the highest security standards in the field of combating bioterrorism to secure major events from biological threats and their consequences, as well as raising the capabilities of the country's law enforcement agencies to respond to biological incidents and increase the level of awareness and coordination among the concerned authorities in the event of a biological incident, in addition to forming a national team of biological weapons inspectors who will be qualified legally and technically and their capabilities will be built to activate the executive decision of the Biological Weapons Law, undertake the most challenging tasks, along with training them to verify activities related to biological industries in accordance with the Biological Weapons Convention. Brigadier General Al Jabri explained that these efforts also culminated in the issuance of the Biological Weapons Law No. 4 of 2016, adding at the international level, the State of Qatar has been submitting 21 annual reports on confidence-building measures related to the Biological Weapons Convention and sending them to the Convention Implementation Support Unit in the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in Geneva, in addition to holding several seminars, workshops and training courses for male and female university and secondary school students, workers in the medical sector in the state institutions and in the private sector, as well as for those concerned with dealing with biological materials, with the aim of building national capabilities and raising awareness among segments of society.