The Sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (MOP 6) was held in Hyderabad, India, from 1-5 October 2012. At this meeting there was no conspicuous contention regarding the issue of gliability and redressh in the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol that was established at MOP5. In addition, many issues were held over until the next meeting, and therefore the overall discussions were low key. The issue that caused the greatest problem was gconsideration for socioeconomic impacts.h (See
BJ October 2012) Since Paraguay, representing the disposition of the US and Monsanto, strongly opposed the establishment of a specialist group, a settlement was not attained until the final day, when Paraguay finally gave in to persuasion.
The chairmanship of the conference passed from Japan to India, and in an opening speech the chairperson touched on gthe issue of papaya seed pollution in Okinawa, setting off an event in which the Japanese government delegation was obliged to give an explanation. There were many side events, including some which drew attention to Japan. An example was an event on the issue of GM rapeseed volunteers and the suspension of in-house seed production of
nabana (Brassica campestris (oleifera group)) in Mie Prefecture (see
BJ May 2012 by the Japan Citizens' Network for Sustainable Food and Agriculture which was taken up by the Indian newspaper
The Hindu. A side event organized by the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility drew a large response when Robin Mesnage, one of Gilles-Eric Seralinifs co-researchers from the University of Caen in France, discussed GM animal experiments. The next meetings, COP12 and MOP7 will be held in South Korea.