2026 Civil Society Statement on Biological Weapons
Updated: 15 hours ago
Prepared by Dr Filippa Lentzos, King’s College London
Delivered by Dr Alexandra Phelan, Johns Hopkins University
On October 15, Dr Alexandra Phelan of Johns Hopkins University delivered a statement on biological weapons to the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, prepared by Dr Filippa Lentzos of King’s College London.
The message: the ban on biological weapons remains one of the clearest norms in international security, but a strong prohibition is not enough if the institutions upholding it cannot keep pace with change.
The Working Group on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention has just one substantive session left, in December, before reporting to the Tenth Review Conference in 2027, and its hardest questions are still open: compliance and verification, confidence-building, and new mechanisms for science and technology and for international cooperation.
As AI converges with synthetic biology and laboratory automation, they argue, the Convention needs an independent, well-resourced science and technology mechanism, sustained work on compliance, and stronger preparedness to investigate alleged use — the UN Secretary-General’s Mechanism has never been activated for a biological event. The BWC does not need a new prohibition; it needs the institutional capacity to make the existing one credible.
Read the full statement: