KAMPALA, April 17. /TASS/. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) is not working effectively because some countries are not complying with its terms and won’t agree to additional oversight, Vyacheslav Smolensky, deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor), said.

"The BWC is not doing its job, once again, because some countries are blocking proposals to create tools that could help monitor the implementation of the convention," he said at the first Russian-African International Conference on Combatting Infectious Diseases.

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) was developed under the auspices of the UN Disarmament Commission, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 16, 1971, and entered into force on March 26, 1975. At present, 184 countries are parties to it. The depositary states are Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The states who are part of the BWC agree to prohibit the development, production, stockpiling, and acquisition of biological weapons; to eliminate them or convert them to peaceful uses; not to assist, encourage or induce any state to produce or acquire them; and to aid third countries that may be threatened by a violation of the convention.