Selecting a replacement for Professor Hamid Ghodse on the INCB Board

The recent death of Prof. Hamid Ghodse gives rise to the need to replace his position on the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). The composition of the INCB is determined by procedures laid out in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (as amended by the 1972 Protocol). Article 9 of the Convention states that the Board shall comprise 13 members elected by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC or Council); the parent body of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Of these members, three are selected from a list supplied by the WHO. The vacancy on the Board left by Prof. Hamid Ghodse, himself elected as a WHO nominee, therefore involves both that organization and ECOSOC.

According to procedure, the WHO must propose candidates for the vacancy. The Single Convention doesn’t state how many candidates it should propose in the event of a vacancy, but in the spirit of the treaty it seems that the WHO can’t nominate less than two. This would deprive the Council of its right of choice regarding the membership of the Board. In putting together its list, the attention of the WHO is drawn to the desirability that its nominees should not only enjoy a reputation in the medical, pharmacological and pharmaceutical world as required by article 6, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) of the Single Convention, but should also have a sound knowledge of international and national narcotics administration.

The WHO sends its list of nominees to the UN Secretary-General who then transmits this to ECOSOC. The Council subsequently sets up a Committee of Candidature charged with the task of selecting from the nominees those persons considered particularly qualified. (Under normal circumstances the Committee would establish two panels of recommended persons, one containing government nominated persons and the other WHO nominees). The Committee presents the panel to Council and election to the Board is decided by secret ballot under the Council’s rules of procedure.

Interestingly, ECOSOC is not bound to choose from the panel established by the Committee on Candidatures. It can, however, elect only persons nominated by the WHO, and in the case of the normal election process, by Members of the UN or non-members that are Parties to the Single Convention. If possible the election process must take place and the vacancy filled at the ECOSOC session following the appearance of the vacancy. The next ECOSOC substantive session will be held in Geneva, 01-26 July 2013.

See: Commentary on the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961(United Nations, New York, 1973) & Commentary on the Protocol Amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 (United Nations, New York, 1976)