Coca leaf review: a reckoning for global drug control — IDPC statement at the 2024 CND thematic discussions

Statement by the International Drug Policy Consortium at the occasion of the CND thematic discussions on the implementation of all international drug policy commitments following up to the 2019 Ministerial Declaration.

Delivered by Ann Fordham, IDPC Executive Director

Thank you Mr Chair for giving me the floor. I make this statement on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium – a global network of over 190 NGOs that come together to promote drug policies grounded in social justice and human rights.

This statement relates to the critical review of the coca leaf.

This critical review comes nearly 75 years after the UN banned the traditional uses of the plant by listing it in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This is despite the fact that the coca leaf has been used for millennia by Indigenous Peoples in the Andean-Amazonian region for traditional, religious, ancestral and medicinal purposes.

At the time, the decision to place the plant under strict international control was based on deeply problematic colonial and racist prejudice, as is further explained in Bolivia’s dossier annexed to its request for the critical review.

We were able to address the ECDD at their open session last month and called on the ECDD to correct this historical wrong – and to explicitly distance itself from past racist arguments made by WHO officials themselves regarding the plant.

Since 1961, extensive research shows that the coca leaf does not result in health harms, but may, in fact, have possible benefits, including as a medicine, as a food supplement, and for social, cultural and religious purposes. In addition, the basic premise of the 1961 Single Convention is that plants are only scheduled as a narcotic drug when they are considered to produce harmful effects similar to other scheduled substances. This is certainly not the case for the coca leaf when compared to the effects of cocaine use.

Various UN entities have increasingly recognised the need to decolonise drug policy and align the UN drug control regime with human rights – including Indigenous Peoples’ rights. This includes statements from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, and resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Human Rights Council. Furthermore, the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy elaborates the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their traditional and cultural practices.

As with all UN bodies and entities, the World Health Organization is also bound by the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil human rights – which is one of the overarching pillars of the United Nations. As such, any scheduling recommendation by the ECDD should also take due account of human rights considerations.

We therefore welcome the decision made by the ECDD to consider the ‘traditional uses’ of the coca leaf, as one of the key topics of the critical review report. We hope that this will ensure that the traditional knowledge and culture of Andean-Amazonian Indigenous Peoples are duly recognised and seriously considered as the ECDD conducts its critical review and elaborates its recommendations on the plant.

I conclude with some recommendations regarding this process:

There is a need to ensure a transparent and inclusive process that enables the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples all stages of the critical review including inviting Indigenous experts to participate in specific segments of the 48th session of the ECDD that relate to the coca leaf, and not just the public hearings.

• We urge the Member States that had objected to Bolivia’s reservation on the coca leaf, as it re-accessed the Single Convention in 2013, to withdraw such objections, as has now been done by Mexico (in 2018) and the Netherlands (in 2023).
• We encourage Member States to initiate a much-needed discussion on the potential benefits of legal global market opportunities for the coca leaf and its derived products, as well as on possible mechanisms needed to avoid the risks of corporate capture and to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Andean-Amazonian region.

I invite you to read IDPC’s advocacy note on this issue which further elaborates on the points I have made today.

Thank you very much for your consideration.