Τα σημαντικότερα νέα από την 62η Συνεδρίαση της Επιτροπής Ναρκωτικών του ΟΗΕ: Μέρος 1ο
Τη Δευτέρα 18 Μάρτη ξεκίνησε στα κεντρικά του ΟΗΕ στη Βιέννη η 62η συνεδρίαση της Επιτροπής για τα Ναρκωτικά (CND). Στο τέλος της εβδομάδας που προηγήθηκε (14-15 Μαρτίου) είχε πραγματοποιηθεί η Υψηλή Συνδιάσκεψη σε επίπεδο υπουργών/αρχηγών κρατών (HLMS) με την ολοκλήρωση ενός προγράμματος που είχε ψηφιστεί το 2009 με τίτλο “Πολιτική βούληση και σχέδιο δράσης για τη διεθνή συνεργασία για μια ολοκληρωμένη και ισορροπημένη στρατηγική για την αντιμετώπιση του παγκόσμιου προβλήματος των ναρκωτικών”. Το 2019 ήταν η χρονιά που τα Ηνωμένα Έθνη συμφώνησαν να επανεξετάσουν τη πρόγραμμα, να αξιολογήσουν τα αποτελέσματά του, τις επιπτώσεις του και την επιτυχία των κρατών μελών στην επίτευξη των στόχων που είχαν θέσει.
Τα περισσότερα μέτρα του Προγράμματος στόχευαν στη μείωσης της προσφοράς και της ζήτησης ναρκωτικών ουσιών με απώτερο στόχο “έναν κόσμο δίχως ναρκωτικά”. Όπως αναμενόταν, τα κράτη μέλη δεν κατάφεραν να πετύχουν τα ανέφικτα και έτσι αποφάσισαν θετικά σε ένα νέο ψήφισμα. Ενώ, λοιπόν, το έγγραφο αυτό ψηφίστηκε με τη συναίνεση όλων, η απόδοση αυτού σε εθνικό επίπεδο διαφέρει όσο η νομιμοποίηση της κάνναβης και η αποποινικοποίηση χρήσης όλων των ουσιών, οι χώροι εποπτευόμενης χρήσης και η υποβοηθούμενη ψυχοθεραπεία με τη χρήση mdma ή lsd για παράδειγμα, με την στρατιωτικοποίηση της δημόσιας ασφάλειας, τις εξωδικαστικές δολοφονίες, την απουσία διάθεσης οποιούχων αναλγητικών για ιατρικούς σκοπούς (ανακούφιση από τον πόνο), τη ίδια την θανατική ποινή κ.α. Επομένως, παρότι υπάρχει συναίνεση είναι βέβαιο πως δεν υπάρχει ομοφωνία, η έλλειψη της οποίας ήταν καταφανής καθ’ όλη τη διάρκεια τόσο του HLMS όσο και του CND.
Άξιο αναφοράς ήταν το γεγονός ότι μια μέρα πριν την έναρξη των εργασιών του HLMS, 31 υπηρεσίες των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, συμπεριλαμβανομένου του Οργανισμού για την καταπολέμηση του Εγκλήματος και των Ναρκωτικών (UNODC) υιοθέτησε κοινή θέση σχετικά με την πολιτική για τα ναρκωτικά υποστηρίζοντας την αποποινικοποίηση της κατοχής και της χρήσης. Read more
Civil Society Forum on Drugs addresses key recommendations to the HDG on the draft declaration of the 2019 CND Ministerial Segment
From 14-22 March, the annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is organized in Vienna, this year focusing on the assessment of the UN’s 10-year program on drug policy (2009-2019) and the debate on whether or not to adopt a new declaration for the next decade. This session will also decide whether to approve or not the changes proposed by the World Health Organization regarding the legal status of cannabis.
As UN member states are currently negotiating the declaration to be adopted at the 2019 UN Ministerial Segment on drugs, the Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) -in which organization Diogenis participates as a member – wishes to offer the following recommendations to the EU and its member states, with the hope that these will be helpful for the next stage of the negotiations process.
More specifically, the CSFD calls “on the EU and its member states to continue to champion the fundamental principles of evidence, human rights, health, development, and the role of civil society throughout the negotiations process – and to continue to promote UNGASS implementation and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the basis for the post-2019 global drug strategy. As such, the CSFD believes that it would be counterproductive to adopt a resolution that significantly rolls back on progress made at the 2016 UNGASS. This means that, as the negotiations continue in the next few weeks, a decision might need to be made as to whether no consensus – and no declaration in March – is preferable to a weak outcome that would reverse the hard-fought gains of the UNGASS. That being said, we remain at your disposal for further discussions, or requests for specific language that would be helpful to the negotiations”
Read the full document here
Press Release: International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) evaluates UN’s 10-year program
The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) presented today the report “Taking stock: A decade of drug policy – A civil society shadow report” in Vienna today. The findings are a response from the International Consortium, a network of 174 non-governmental organizations around the world, in the failure of governments and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to substantially evaluate the ten-year program they adopted in 2009. Member states of the UN declared in 2009 that they “will eliminate or substantially reduce and reduce measurably illicit drug supply and demand, trafficking, diversion of precursors and money laundering.” The report finds that UN Member States are still pursuing a policy that causes devastating effects on health, human rights, security and development, without reducing global supply and use of illicit drugs.
According to UNODC’s annual reports on drugs, over the past decade there has been an increase of 145% of drug-related deaths, noting that in 2015 drug deaths already amounted to 450,000
• At least 3,940 people have been executed for drug offenses over the past decade, while 33 countries have maintained the death penalty for drug-related offenses in violation of international standards.
• About 27,000 out-of-court executions took place in the Philippines as part of its repressive drug policy.
• More than 71,000 overdose deaths in 2017 are the current policy review in the United States of America.
• The global epidemic of pain resulting from restrictions on access to controlled medicines remains. The drug control system has left 75% of the world’s population without adequate access to pain relief.
• Mass imprisonment fueled by the criminalization of people using drugs – with one in five detainees being in prison for drug offenses – mainly for personal use. ”
Read more
Open letter to WHO & UNODC to revise guidelines on “International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders”
The 61st session of the UN Commission on Drugs, in which Diogenes participates as a consutative NGO on the UN ECOSOC Council, is taking place in Vienna from 12 to 16 March. Today, March 15, during the Session, a discussion is held on the results of the WHO and the UNODC joint work on new “international standards for the treatment of drug use disorders”.
“Diogenis” a few days ago, together with 187 other organizations active in the field of psychoactive substances treatment, harm reduction and politics, co-signed an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), calling for a revision of the final text before it is published and/or promoted internationally, indicating the following:
- The paper contains many assertions not supported evidentiarily or cited.
- The phrase ‘harm reduction’ is entirely missing from the document.
- The paper contains crude generalisations and many stigmatising and pathologising assertions.
- Notably, the paper contains numerous implications that people who use drugs and have drug dependencies are dangerous; cannot exercise agency and self-determination; are sick; are unreliable; are bad family members; are bad employees. Needless to say, such crude generalisations are deeply stigmatising and offensive, not to mention unempirical.
- The paper fails to identify criminalisation and prohibition as being responsible for driving much drug related harm and harm associated with drug dependency; instead, it myopically asserts that because drugs are harmful, they are criminalised, without noting that it is due to the fact that they are criminalised that they are so harmful.
- The paper’s active promotion Naltrexone is very concerning, given its lack of evidentiary support: Naltrexone is promoted in the document as of equal value to interventions that are (in contrast to Naltrexone) empirically justified and greatly beneficial; this is arguably used to eclipse interventions with proven efficacy, such as methadone, buprenorphine, and diamorphine/morphine prescribing, due to the document’s clear advocation of abstinence-based recovery.
You can read the signed letter of civil society organizations here.
New publication from Diogenis!
Drug Policy Reform.
The UNGASS 2016, a catalyst for change?
The international community has since more than hundred years tried to implement a system that will limit production and use of narcotic and psychoactive substances to medical and scientific purposes. In three international drug control conventions, administrative controls and penal sanctions have been established to combat illegal production and use of these substances with the purpose to protect “the health and welfare of mankind”
The book refers concisely to important developments of the drug control system since the beginning of the 20th century and the entry into force of the three international drug control conventions after 1961
This drug control system is periodically evaluated. In 2016 a special Session of the General Assembly of the UN reviewed “the achievements and challenges in countering the world drug problem within the framework of the three international drug control conventions”. This special session is the main subject of the publication. The discussions that led to this special session are outlined on the basis of the official texts of UN member states’ evaluations and political decisions and the contribution of civil society organizations to UN meetings.
The author considers the outcome document of the UNGASS 2016, to be a promising sign for the change in orientation of the current drug control system and a shift in drug policy from repression and punishment, to pragmatism and focus on public health and respect for human rights.
Policy makers, practitioners in the field of drugs and interested readers will find in the book valuable insights about trends and possible alternatives for the current drug policy.
You can read the publication here.