Kyrgyzstan's President Signs Law on Biological Safety

President Sadyr Japarov signed the Law "On biological safety in the Kyrgyz Republic," according to the president's press service.

The law will establish legal norms of biological safety in the country, securing state guarantees against possible risks of exposure to biological agents and the use of products of modern biotechnology, The Caspian Post reports, citing Kyrgyz media.

The main objectives of the law are:

• Development and use of biotechnology in compliance with appropriate safety measures with respect to human health and the environment;
• Ensuring comprehensive prevention of biological safety threats;
• Minimization of the risks of using pathogenic biological agents and toxins, as well as products of modern biotechnology.

From 1996 to 2005, Kyrgyzstan joined the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.