Drug policy reform experts have called on the INCB and related UN institutions to urgently open up a constructive dialogue on international drug policy reform.
In a political climate in which the international drug control system and the ‘war on drugs’ are being increasingly questioned, the INCB once again seeks to defend the status quo, instead of welcoming modernisation and supporting governments to find ways to deal with new challenges and realities.
The INCB Annual Report for 2013 is to be launched today in Vienna. For more information, please visit the INCB website and read the IDPC Media Statement drafted ahead of the launch.
A representative from the IDPC secretariat attended and noted the large number of officers from Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board present.
The community representatives who took part in the workshop developed a short list of challenges to harm reduction policies, coverage and accessibility, and selected issues on which to focus future advocacy.
The publication is in fact made up of excerpts of previous INCB Reports, assembled as an intervention that the INCB hopes will guide the mid-term examination of the UNGASS review process.
After several marathon inter-sessional meetings in 2013, where a slightly different cohort of delegates debated contentious paragraphs of the proposed ‘Joint Ministerial Statement’, many representatives voiced disbelief that they were having to go over it all again and somehow come to a new consensus with new colleagues.
Ahead of the High-Level Segment on the world drug problem to take place on 13th and 14th January 2014, the UNODC Executive Director, Yuri Fedotov, has released his "contributions" to the debate.
In the month of December 2013, the Policy Team under the European Union-funded Asia Action project organized two events aimed towards improving the human rights environment surrounding people living with HIV and people who use drugs.