The World Assembly,
Admiring the potential of agricultural biotechnology to revolutionize food production, bolster commercial growth, and ensure food security for peoples throughout the world,
Recognizing genetically modified organisms as a crucial product of agricultural biotechnology, which offer immense benefits in crop yield, pest resistance, and other areas,
Understanding that genetically modified organisms by their very nature present a potentially extreme hazard to national populations, due in no small part to the unpredictability of novel genetic material, which poses substantial risks such as increased selection pressure on native organisms, gene transfer resulting in resistant pests and microorganisms with increased pathogenicity, and the impossibility of removing many such organisms from the environment after their introduction, and
Wishing to encourage the development of agricultural biotechnology while addressing this potential hazard and supporting global conservation and agricultural sustainability efforts through the regulation of the international trade of genetically modified organisms, hereby:
- Defines for the purposes of this resolution:
- "biotechnology" as the application of genetic modification techniques that overcome natural barriers of physiological reproduction or recombination, and are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection; and
- a "genetically modified organism" (GMO) as any living organism or product made from a living organism, including viruses and similar particles, that possesses genetic material in a novel combination obtained through the use of biotechnology, excepting sapient organisms;
- Establishes the Committee for the Regulation of Modified Products (CRMP) under the International Trade Administration for the purpose of overseeing the implementation of measures pursuant to this resolution, with the following responsibilities:
- establishing and maintaining guidelines regarding the international trade of GMOs, in order to protect conservation efforts and biodiversity;
- providing guidance on environmental risk assessment of GMOs;
- facilitating the exchange of information concerning GMOs;
- assisting member nations with the acquisition of resources to safely develop and effectively regulate biotechnology;
- assisting member nations with the implementation of measures pursuant to this resolution; and
- providing funding to member nations for the purpose of implementing measures pursuant to this resolution, in the event that the member nations in question are demonstrably unable to otherwise implement such measures due to economic limitations;
- Mandates that member nations:
- make decisions regarding the import of GMOs based on scientific environmental risk assessments where reasonable;
- take reasonable and effective measures to prevent the illicit shipment or accidental release of GMOs or their genetic material;
- take economically feasible measures to promote public awareness of the benefits and risks of GMOs according to a cost-benefit analysis of said measures; and
- assist with scientific and technical training regarding GMOs;
- Reserves to member nations the ability to set their own policies regarding the sterilization of plant GMOs and the use of sterilized plant GMOs, with the following requirements:
- said policies must permit the use of sterilized plant GMOs in cases where the environmental benefit of using sterilized plant GMOs would clearly outweigh any downsides of their use; and
- said policies must implement reasonable and effective measures to prevent the spread of sterilized plant GMO pollen to any nearby fields of similar plants;
- Encourages member nations to facilitate more expansive research and development of biotechnology.
