Policy & Legislation in UN

Policy & Legislation in UN ➝

Τα σημαντικότερα νέα από την 62η Συνεδρίαση της Επιτροπής Ναρκωτικών του ΟΗΕ: Μέρος 1ο

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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

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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

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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. ”
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Open letter to WHO & UNODC to revise guidelines on “International Standards for the Treatment of Drug Use Disorders”

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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!

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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.

“Diogenis” co-singns international statement to end extrajudicial executions at Philippines.

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NGO “Diogenis Drug Policy Dialogue” co-signed, along with 200 other civil society organizations, a statement calling for urgent measures to put an end to the extrajudicial executions policy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and to seek justice. The statement was made public on Thursday 9/11 shortly before US President Donald Trump (who repeatedly praised Duterte’s drug war) met for the first time with Duterte during the Asian Nations Summit in the Philippines (ASEAN ) on 12-14 November. The meeting of the two Presidents took place today and, as expected, the issue of human rights and extrajudicial executions was not discussed.

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New Briefing Paper: Drug Policy after the UNGASS 2016

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A brand new Briefing Paper, n.7, was just added at the “Publication Series”, under the title “Drug Policy after the UNGASS 2016”, by the director of “Diogenis”, Mr Thanasis Apostolou.
The purpose of this briefing paper is :
a. To inform policy makers, researchers, members of NGOs and institutions working in prevention, treatment and social rehabilitation of drug users and everyone interested in the results of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on drugs (UNGASS), held from 19 to 21, April 2016, in New York (USA)
b. to present views expressed and which are in discussion about the importance of the UNGASS concerning the assessment of the existing policy on drugs and the strategic direction that governments will decide to follow for their drug policy in the future
c. to refer to the discussion at the regional conference organized from 1-3 June 2016 in Thessaloniki which focused on exchanging views on the post-UNGASS policy that can be followed in SEE countries.

You can read the briefing paper, here.

UNAIDS calls for Harm Reduction investment with the aim of “Ending AIDS by 2030”

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With the aim of “ending AIDS by 2030”, the UN agency for AIDS stresses the need for investment in Harm Reduction programs in order to ensure that people who use intravenous drugs have universal equal access to them. It calls for policies that respect human rights and the needs of injecting drug users (IDUs) and promote prevention, treatment, care and other support services associated with HIV. Similar are the recommendations from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), that also suggested the implementation of similar programs and services as a comprehensive package for vulnerable populations.

The existence of laws and policies that “do not cause harm to people who use drugs and increasing investments in harm reduction programmes and services results in a decrease in new HIV infections and improved health outcomes and delivers broader social benefits” (UNAIDS , 2016). Similarly, laws that provide alternative measures to imprisonment and prosecution for drug use and drug possession for personal use reduce the harmful effects associated with drug use use and do not lead to increased drug use. According to UNAIDS data, worldwide, there are: about 12 cm. People injecting drugs, of which 14% (1.6 mil.) Living with HIV and 50% (6 m.) With virus hepatitis C. also, in 2014 we had 140,000 new infections with the HIV virus in the population of IDUs without any apparent reduction in the annual number of these new infections in the four years from 2010 to 2014.

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Diogenis signs the IDPC Open Letter to UNODC & INCB for the extrajudicial killings in Philippines

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LONDON (2nd August 2016) – Civil society groups from across the globe, including prominent human rights NGOs, have called on UN drug control authorities to urge an immediate stop to the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders in the Philippines. Since 10th May 2016, more than 700 people have been killed by police and vigilantes in the Philippines for being suspected of using or dealing drugs, as a direct result of recently-elected President Duterte’s campaign to eradicate crime within six months.

Until now, however, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) – the UN agencies responsible for global drug control – have failed to condemn the Philippines for these gross human rights violations committed in the name of drug control.

Over 300 non-governmental organisations – NGO Diogenis among them –  today sent an open letter to the UNODC Executive Director, Mr. Yury Fedotov, and the INCB President, Mr. Werner Sipp, asking them to take immediate action aimed at putting a stop to the extrajudicial killings.

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Drug policy after the UNGASS 2016

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Heads of State, ministers and representatives of member states assembled at United Nations Headquarters from 19 to 21 April 2016, recognized that, “while tangible progress has been achieved in some fields, the world drug problem continues to present challenges to the health, safety and well-being of all humanity” and declared to “reinforce national and international efforts to face those challenges”.

An article by Thanasis Apostolou, Director of NGO Diogenis – Drug Policy Dialogue.

Read the full article here.