ABSTRACT
Greenpeace and other non-governmental organizations (NGO) consider that multilateral environmental agreements should never be subordinate to international trade rules. The key elements proposed by Greenpeace were broadly supported by all environment and development NGO, some of which also produced briefing papers. The precautionary principle was one of the three final sticking points in the last hours of the negotiations in Montreal. The inclusion of the precautionary principle in the biosafety protocol was a further reinforcement of the principle as the basis for decision-making on genetically modified organisms (GMO) and of its application as an emerging international legal principle. The protocol’s international procedures for advance informed agreement will provide useful safeguards for parties who receive imports of living modified organisms, particularly as all decision-making will be based on the precautionary principle. Liability and redress for environmental harm resulting from activities involving GMOs was and remains, according to NGOs, an essential condition of the biosafety protocol.
