US Violating the Biological Weapons Convention, NGO Asserts

For Immediate Release
Contact – Janet Phelan, ITHACA
541 708-3534

When the Eighth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention meets this November at the UN in Geneva, its purpose will be to review the status of the implementation of the treaty. However, an NGO presentation will be challenging the US’s compliance with the treaty.

The presentation by ITHACA will focus on specific aspects of the US’s behavior vis-à-vis biological weapons control. The presentation will detail the altering of domestic bioweapons legislation via the USA PATRIOT Act, which gave the US immunity from violating its own bioweapons laws. The presentation will also reveal that, contrary to the dictates of politically binding mandates, the US failed to inform the Convention at large concerning this pivotal change in US legislation. The ITHACA presentation will provide details of what appears to be a covert domestic bioweapons delivery system as well as point to the stockpiling of bioweapons on military bases, all of which is in violation of the BWC. Finally, the presentation will detail the repeated instances of the US sending live biological agents to multiple labs, domestically and internationally.

ITHACA’s presentation will take place during the time allotted for NGO presentations at the BWC, on Tuesday, November 8. For more information, please contact ITHACA at 541 708-3534. Press is welcome at the Convention, which is open to the media and will take place in Building E, Room XVIII at Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland.

ITHACA was created in 2009 for the purpose of engaging the United Nations on pivotal issues. To date, ITHACA has submitted reports to two UPR cycles (Universal Periodic Review) of the human rights record of the United States and has participated in the 7th Review Conference of the BWC. A report concerning torture in the United States is pending.