Political representatives from over 130 countries gathered at a United Nations high level meeting in Vienna on 11th/12th March 2009 to conclude a 2-year long review of progress achieved within the global drug control system.
The accounts below, drawn from published literature and from those who have passed through treatment in Asia and the former Soviet Union, detail the range of abuses practiced in the name of drug dependence treatment, and suggest the need for reform on grounds of health and human rights.
This analysis demonstrates that a move to legally regulated drug supply would deliver substantial benefits to the Treasury and wider community, even in the highly unlikely event of a substantial increase in use.
The Political Declaration adopted on the 12th March 2009 at the High Level Segment of the 52nd Session of the CND is a framework and a set of priorities for the next 10 years of international drug policy. IDPC and its members have followed with interest the process for reviewing progress against the objectives set at the General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in 1998 - namely, to eradicate or significantly reduce the production of, and demand for, the non-medical use of controlled drugs.
Civil society engagement in during the lead up to the UN High Level Segment has been for the first time a properly structured programmed of NGO involvement put in place by the 'Beyond 2008' initiative. Nine regional seminars were held through the first half of 2008, and 300 delegates drawn from these events gathered in Vienna in July 2008 to put together a NGO consensus declaration for presentation to the CND.
Antonio Costa, the Executive Director of UNODC gave a speech to the High Level Segment of the 2009 Commission on Narcotic Drugs on the 11th March 2009. The speech drew heavily on a discussion paper published by the UNODC shortly before the meeting - "Organised Crime and Its Threat to Security".
In a statement on the eve of the adoption of the new political declaration, the High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, called for a greater focus on human rights and harm reduction in drug policy.
The seventh of the IDPC's regular "UNGASS News" updates, keeping the network up to speed with developments in the UN drug policy review process is now available, and includes an update on the practical arrangements now in place for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the High Level Segment, opportunities for civil society involvement, and a report on the latest round of negotiating meetings preparing the political declaration and annex.
A programme of satellite events to be held by IDPC and its partners to supplement the fifty-second Commission on Narcotic Drugs and its high-level segment is to follow shortly...
The Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Michel_Kazatchkine, urged the president of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to send a strong message to the world with clear and specific language that calls for comprehensive harm reduction services.
At the end of 2008, about 1,500 persons were released who were in Ecuadorian prisons sentenced for drug trafficking. The measure, known as "pardon for mules,” singled out a specific group of prisoners who were victims of indiscriminate and disproportionate legislation that was in effect for many years.
