A federation of animal protection organizations now has a formal voice at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an influential international organization that develops testing guidelines and programs, which historically have relied heavily on animal-based methods. The federation, known as the International Council on Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO), will seek to promote new test guidelines the fully incorporate alternative methods that can replace, reduce, and refine animal use (the "Three Rs"). Similarly, ICAPO will seek to limit animal use and promote alternative methods in OECD testing programs, such as the OECD's emerging programs to assess "high production volume" chemicals and "endocrine disrupting" chemicals.
The Humane Society of the United States serves as ICAPO's secretariat. Other member organizations include the Animal Alliance of Canada, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, Doris Day Animal League, Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, Japanese Anti-Vivisection Association, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. By virtue of its formal recognition in March 2002, ICAPO joined other non-governmental organizations, including those representing business, labor, and the environment, who already had official status as invited experts to the OECD. The OECD is based in Paris and has 30 member states, including the United States.
Historically, decisions concerning new testing guidelines and testing programs have been made by federal agencies or a national government as a whole. For example, in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued policy decisions concerning which tests were acceptable to the agency and which new testing programs the agency was going to implement. However, decisions such as these are increasingly being made at the international level, through consensus among nations. Thus, it is extremely important to the animal protection community to be represented at the OECD.
