Earlier in April, the Cook Islands submitted its first Confidence Building Measure Report (CBM) for the year 2024, an obligation as a States Party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

The completion of this report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration (MFAI) was supported by MFAI participation in the Regional Workshop on the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), hosted by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in March this year.

The Cook Islands has been a State Party to the BWC since 2008; however, this is the first time it has fully engaged and met the convention's obligations. The BWC is a cornerstone of the multilateral disarmament regime aiming to rid the world of biological and toxic weapons. Biological weapons can be highly deadly and contagious and can affect humans, agriculture, and diseases that can be caused and transmitted by such weapons are not constrained by national borders.

“Whilst a number of components of the CBM report are not relevant for the Cook Islands context, completion and submission of the report to the UNODA demonstrates the Cook Islands commitment to upholding its obligations as State Party to the Biological Weapons Convention and the convention’s ultimate objective of ridding the world of biological and toxic weapons,” said MFAI Secretary Tepaeru Herrmann.

The Cook Islands joins 79 out of 188 states parties to have submitted reports for the year 2024. In supporting the completion of the report, MFAI consulted with Biosecurity, Crown Law, Ministry of Education, Te Marae Ora, the University of the South Pacific, ensuring all relevant sectors were accounted for.

The Cook Islands submission can be found at the following link: https://bwc-cbm.un.org/report/detail/13697