Events

Drug Policy and Public Health - Executive Course on Global Health Diplomacy

8 December 2015

The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
Global Health Programme

The Political Declaration of the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the 'World Drug Problem' called for eliminating illicit drugs in a decade. Eighteen years later and with drugs now being more easily available and less expensive, the General Assembly decided to reconvene an UNGASS in April 2016. More countries from the Americas and Europe are calling for an open debate and for the introduction of innovative policies that will enable countries to ensure the health and welfare of mankind, the original goal of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Countries are now facing the challenges of the horizontal nature of the drug issue that goes far beyond law-enforcement in compliance with international drug control rules, when their ministries of health tend to treat users, while their ministries of interior and justice tend to criminalise them? How can WHO have a meaningful and impactful role in the drugs issue? And how can UNGASS 2016 shift drug control and include better health outcomes for affected people?

Target Group

The course is aimed at policy-makers involved in public health, drug policy, and human rights negotiations including:

  • Governments' representatives from presidential offices, ministries of health, foreign affairs, justice, interior and drug control agencies
  • Representatives from international and regional institutions
  • Professionals in academia
  • Representatives from non-governmental organisations

The course will proceed under the Chatham House Rule.

Course Faculty

  • Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Senior Fellow, Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland; UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Commissioner, Global Commission on Drug Policy
  • Professor Thomas Zeltner, former Secretary of Health of Switzerland and Director-General of the Swiss National Health Authority, Chairperson of the Advisory Board, Global HealthProgramme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland

Speakers from international organisations and representatives from different sectors will also contribute their expertise throughout the course.

Find out more about this course's content, fee and application process.

Or contact globalhealthdiplomacy@graduateinstitute.ch for further inquiries.

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