La route après le chaos de l’UNGASS : Est-ce-que tout s’écroule pour l’Afrique ?

Actualités

La route après le chaos de l’UNGASS : Est-ce-que tout s’écroule pour l’Afrique ?

21 juin 2016

Un grand nombre de pays africains étaient absents lors des préparatifs de l’UNGASS et ignoraient les discussions qui y ont été tenues. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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As government delegates and civil society organizations from all over the world gathered at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in New York last month, many hoped for a sober reflection of the world drug problem and an honest assessment of what has not worked over the years. Unfortunately, however, this hope was not entirely met.

The drug problem and its related “harms” transcend borders and affect people across Africa and the world as a whole. Hence, international cooperation is believed to be the way towards an integrated and balanced strategy, and the United Nations places a lot of emphasis and energy into the achievement of a “global consensus”.

The Special Session in New York saw more 20 African countries (Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia) participate in this very important discussion. These countries had the opportunity to make their statements and contributed to the debate on the world drug problem.

Right from the very onset, the UNGASS preparations in the region did not begin in a spirit of “consensus”. In various speeches throughout the debates, government representatives stood up and contradicted one another on the core premises of drug control. These contradictions were not surprising because, before UNGASS, Africa’s engagement in the global discussions was very low – pointing to a broader issue about the engagement of African governments in the international drug policy debates in Vienna, where all the UNGASS preparations took place. A large number of African countries have no permanent diplomatic presence in Vienna, and hence, they were largely absent and unaware of the discussions being held there. Instead, a small group of African ambassadors has dominated proceedings on behalf of the ‘Africa Group’.

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Thumbnail: Flikr CC Ashitaka San