Lettre ouverte des Ministères hollandais au Parlement vis-à-vis de l’UNGASS sur la drogue

Actualités

Lettre ouverte des Ministères hollandais au Parlement vis-à-vis de l’UNGASS sur la drogue

30 mars 2015

Cette lettre explique les priorités et la stratégie de la présidence hollandaise à l’Union européenne au cours de la période de l’UNGASS. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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Internationally, the discussion is moving away from repressive measures and towards harm reduction, access to medication and the decriminalisation of drug use. Given the desire of many countries to shift the focus of the worldwide debate on drugs towards health issues, the Dutch government believes that UNGASS 2016 is an opportunity for the Netherlands to present its experiences and tried-and-tested interventions. A commitment to harm reduction is part of that and is likely to be a key topic of discussion at the Special Session. In addition, it is important to draw attention to the issue of access to necessary medicines, in particular pain control medication. Finally, there is the human rights perspective. The Netherlands needs to draw attention to the importance of decriminalising drug use so that users have full access to information on prevention, treatment and harm-reduction measures. This is currently not the case in many UN member states.

  1. Drugs policy from a public health perspective
  2. Guaranteeing access to medicine
  3. Decriminalising drug users

UNGASS will take place in the first half of 2016, when the Netherlands holds the presidency of the EU. In that capacity, the Netherlands will coordinate and express the EU’s position during the Special Session. The Netherlands will play an important role in the EU’s preparations, which have already begun. With a view to carrying out its role in 2016 as effectively as possible, the government is committed to:

  • ensuring the Netherlands’ positions on the substantive issues are incorporated into the EU position to the greatest possible extent, and
  • establishing a widely supported EU position on as many points as possible.

In the run-up to 2016, the Netherlands will need to consult with other holders of the EU presidency (Italy, Latvia and Luxembourg). The first meetings have aleady been held, and it was made clear that the Netherlands is expected to play a leading role.

The Netherlands will take steps in 2015 to assume this coordinating role by supporting the other presidencies and by talking to the most important global partners (Latin American countries, the United States, Norway and Switzerland). We will discuss the aims for UNGASS in bilateral talks with our fellow ministers within the EU.

The presidency will give the Netherlands the opportunity to put important issues on the agenda. However, where viewpoints diverge, compromises will have to be made. This could result in broadly worded texts or even compel some member states to go their own way. Drugs policy is, after all, a national competence of the member states.

The EU Drugs Strategy endorsed by the Council in 2013 will be the guiding document in this process.

The full letter is available below.

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