NOTIFICATION
No. 2018-013
Dear Madam/Sir,
In decision XIII/17, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity extended the mandate of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Synthetic Biology, with new terms of reference as contained in the annex to the decision, and requested that the AHTEG meet at least once face to face prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.
The face-to-face meeting of the AHTEG on Synthetic Biology was convened in Montreal, Canada, from 5 to 8 December 2017. I am, therefore, pleased to invite Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to peer review the report of the meeting, which is available at
http://bch.cbd.int/synbio/peer-review.
National Focal Points to the Convention are kindly requested to coordinate views nationally prior to submission on behalf of Parties and other Governments. Only submissions by National Focal Points to the Convention and heads of organizations, as appropriate, will be accepted. Submissions must be sent to the Secretariat, via e-mail to
synbio@cbd.int using the template accessible in the annex to this notification, no later than
28 February 2018.
All submissions received through this peer-review process will be made available online and, along with the AHTEG report and other relevant documentation, will be taken into account by the Secretariat in preparing the relevant documents for consideration by the twenty-second meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to be held in Montreal, Canada from 2 to 7 July 2018.
The text of this notification is also available on the CBD website at:
http://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2018/ntf-2018-013-synthetic-biology-en.doc
Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Cristiana Paşca Palmer, PhD
Executive Secretary
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
United Nations Environment Programme
