• Español
  • English
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • rss
  • Español
  • English
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • rss
TNI D&D
  • Home
  • About us
    • About us
    • People
    • Partners
    • Researchers
    • Contact us
    • In the media
    • Newsletter
  • Newsroom
    • Press contacts
    • Press releases
    • Resources
    • Drugs in the news
  • Issues
    • Drug policy debate in the Americas
    • Decriminalization
    • Proportionality of sentences
    • Harm reduction
    • Reclassification of substances
    • Safer crack use
    • Human rights
    • Regulation
    • Unscheduling the coca leaf
    • Ending the war on drugs
    • Alternative development
    • Cannabis
    • Producers of Crops
    • Law enforcement
    • ATS, Mild stimulants & NPS
    • European Drug Policy
    • Money Laundering
  • UN Drug
    Control
    • Conventions
    • UNODC
    • CND
    • INCB
    • UNGASS
  • Country
    information
    • Drug Law Reform on the Map
    • Central America
      • El Salvador
      • Guatemala
      • Honduras
      • Costa Rica
    • Latin America
      • Argentina
      • Bolivia
      • Paraguay
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Colombia
      • Ecuador
      • Peru
      • Uruguay
      • Venezuela
    • Mexico
    • Caribbean
      • Jamaica
      • Belize
    • Afghanistan
  • Events
    • Expert Seminars
    • Informal Policy Dialogues
    • Public Events
    • Judges for Law Reform
  • Publications
    • Drug Policy Briefings
    • Drug Law Reform
    • Legislative Reform Series
    • The Human Face
    • Drugs & conflict
    • Drugs and the Law (CEDD)
      • Systems overload
    • Drug Markets and Violence
  • Weblog

 

UNGASS review 2008-2009

The 2007 CND preparing the UNGASS 10-year review

The 50th Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), held in Vienna from 12-16 March 2007 was the last such event before the watershed year of 2008, when the international community will review progress against the objectives set at the General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), held in New York in 1998. The key decision that had to be taken at the 2007 CND was the timing and procedure for the UNGASS review.

A draft resolution tabled by Canada (L.14) was negotiated and adopted that agrees to maintain the March 2008 CND meeting as the moment to present the UNODC assessment report and to devote the thematic debate next year to discuss it, "underscoring the value of objective, scientific, balanced and transparent assessment." [1] Following the March 2008 CND, a period of global reflection will start, leading to a high-level segment at the 2009 CND to draw conclusions for the future. The basic idea has thus been approved to separate time-wise the 2008 assessment report from the 2009 moment to adapt new strategies for the future, thereby preventing that documents guiding future steps are elaborated simultaneously with the UNODC assessment report without due time for reflection.

The 2008 assessment report will furthermore be enriched by inputs from expert consultations. A 40-strong expert group met for the first time in February this year – with financial support from the European Commission – as the result of an EU-sponsored resolution at the 2006 CND aiming to involve other specialized UN agencies and regional organisations in the UNGASS evaluation process.[2] The group – operating under the supervision of the UNGASS Coordination Group established within UNODC – is supposed to complement information from the Biennial Reports Questionnaire (BRQ) with additional relevant data sources and to provide recommendations on the methodology for the UNGASS 10-year assessment, enhancing the analytical work done by UNODC. It is still unclear how their recommendations will be reflected in the final UNODC assessment report.

The Canadian draft resolution reflected the outcomes of prior informal consultations within the 'Group of Friends' of the CND Presidency. The text refers back to the previous resolutions on the expert consultations, and on the importance of the role of civil society in the UNGASS review process.[3] It does not detail how preparations for the 2009 highlevel segment will be undertaken, apart from saying that a period of reflection should start at the 51st CND session next year and that the 2009 segment will be open to all UN Member States. While discussing the draft, however, several delegates drew the parallel with the 2003 mid-term review which was preceded by so-called 'PrepCom' meetings and mentioned that similar arrangements and further details need to be agreed upon next year.

Several countries, anxious that an evidence-based and objective evaluation might identify shortcomings in the current drug control framework and open up a Pandora’s box of better-to-be-avoided questions and proposals for change, tried to reduce the involvement of outside experts and civil society in the process and to downplay the relevance of the global reflection and the high-level character of the 2009 event. Th ere was even an – unsuccessful – attempt to include an operational paragraph that reads like a 'pre-emptive strike' against any possible critical outcomes of the assessment and reflection: “Calls upon Member States to prepare a political declaration reaffirming the commitments made in the UN Conventions and the UNGASS Declaration, noting the progress achieved." In the final plenary session, the US delegation made a statement underscoring their view that the assessment should lead to reaffirmation and strengthening of the existing drug control system. Fortunately, they did not obtain sufficient support for their position to insert any such language in the resolution.

1 E/CN.7/2007/L.14/Rev.1, Measures to meet the goal of establishing by 2009 the progress achieved in implementing the declarations and measures adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna, 15 March 2007.

2 See: IDPC, The UNGASS Evaluation Process Evaluated, Blickman, T. and Evaluated Bewley-Taylor, D., Briefing Paper Nr. 1, June 2006.

3 E/CN.7/2006/10, Resolution 49/1, Collection and use of complementary drug-related data and expertise to support the global assessment by Member States of the implementation of the declarations and measures adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session; and Resolution 49/2, Recognizing the contribution of civil society in global efforts to address the drug problem in the context of reporting on the goals and targets for 2008 set by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session.

The text of the resolutions are available in the Consolidated Report of regular and reconvened 50th session CND

Taken from: Report of the 2007 Commission on Narcotic Drugs, International Drug Policy Consortium Briefing Nr. 5, March 2007

  • Labels
    10-year Review | CND | UNGASS | UN drug control

Drugs in the News

  • Cannabis cafés and self-growing: Czechia presents draft of new marijuana law
    11.01.2024
  • Minister signs bill banning recreational use of weed
    08.01.2024
  • As the mayor of Amsterdam, I can see the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state
    05.01.2024
  • Barcelona city council threatens to shut down cannabis social clubs
    04.01.2024
  • Swiss capital Bern considers legal cocaine project
    20.12.2023
  • High time: after five years, Dutch start legal cannabis trial
    15.12.2023
More news

Weblog

    Willful blindness: INCB can find nothing good to say on cannabis legalisation
    14.03.2023
More weblog

Hilites

Balancing Treaty Stability and Change

balancing hilite

Inter se modification of the UN drug control conventions to facilitate cannabis regulation


Connecting the dots...

connecting dots hilite

Human rights, illicit cultivation and alternative development


Morocco and Cannabis

morocco cannabis hilite

Reduction, containment or acceptance


The Rise and Decline of Cannabis Prohibition

rise decline hilite

The History of Cannabis in the UN Drug Control System and Options For Reform


Tags

10-year Review  20 1998 UNGASS  26 2005 CND debate  8 2016 UNGASS  126 2019 HLM  5 activism  38 afghanistan  25 show all

Tags

10-year Review  20 1998 UNGASS  26 2005 CND debate  8 2016 UNGASS  126 2019 HLM  5 activism  38 afghanistan  25 hide
africa  14 albania  14 alternative development  120 alternatives to policing  2 amnesty  89 amphetamine  1 amsterdam  30 appellation of origin  3 argentina  32 asean  9 ATS  15 australia  109 austria  5 ayahuasca  6 bahamas  4 ballot 2012  155 banking  52 barbados  11 belgium  46 belize  10 bermuda  15 bhang  15 bolivia  118 brazil  95 brownfield doctrine  24 burma  45 california  216 cambodia  12 canada  543 cannabinoids  107 cannabis  3255 cannabis clubs  230 cannabis industry  417 caribbean  148 caricom  33 cbd oil  1 central america  5 chile  21 china  46 civil society  37 CND  131 coca  220 cocaine  95 coffee shop  230 cognitive decline  30 colombia  160 colorado  163 compulsary detention  19 conflict  4 conventions  277 corporate capture  59 corruption  5 costa rica  10 crack  55 craft cannabis  31 crime  92 czech republic  54 dark net  4 death penalty  3 decertification  1 decriminalization  935 deforestation  11 denmark  132 drug checking  41 drug consumption rooms  193 drug courts  22 drug markets  147 drug policy index  2 drug testing  7 drug trade  60 e-cigarettes  1 e-joint  2 ecstasy  70 ecuador  22 egypt  16 el salvador  2 environment  38 eradication  129 essential medicines  25 estonia  2 eswatini  7 ethiopia  3 european drug policy  119 expert advisory group  9 extrajudicial killings  95 fair trade  16 fentanyl  84 france  119 fumigation  27 gateway theory  29 georgia  3 germany  217 ghana  18 global commission  46 greece  19 guatemala  32 guatemala initiative  47 harm reduction  348 hemp  44 heroin  139 heroin assisted treatment  80 HIV/AIDS  61 home cultivation  124 honduras  4 human rights  259 ICC  1 illinois  10 incarceration  53 INCB  143 india  102 indigenous rights  1 indonesia  35 informal drug policy dialogues  22 inter se modification  17 iran  14 ireland  16 israel  63 italy  42 jamaica  176 japan  3 kava  4 kazakhstan  5 kenya  11 ketamine  27 khat  37 kratom  33 kyrgyzstan  1 laos  2 latin american debate  115 law enforcement  432 lebanon  43 legal highs  64 legalization  1709 lesotho  10 local customization  11 luxembourg  60 malawi  4 malaysia  7 malta  58 medical cannabis  665 mental health  45 methamphetamine  49 mexico  211 Mid-Term Review  1 mild stimulants  46 money laundering  55 morocco  128 naloxone  16 nepal  7 netherlands  341 new york  34 new zealand  67 NIDA  5 nigeria  1 nitrous oxide  9 norway  18 NPS  10 opinion polls  132 opioids  153 opium  94 oregon  29 overdose kits  4 pakistan  9 panama  5 paraguay  4 pardon  2 patents  18 peace  24 peru  45 peyote  3 philippines  89 pilot project  137 pleasure  5 poland  2 police pacification  18 portugal  68 potency  2 precursors  7 prevention  3 prison situation  101 prohibition  158 proportionality  110 psychedelics  13 psychosis  57 puerto rico  3 racism  29 reclassification  119 recriminalisation  42 regulation  1454 russia  36 sacramental use  11 safe supply  36 safer crack  29 scheduling  29 scientific research  145 sdg  2 security  14 senegal  1 sentencing  67 singapore  7 social justice  83 somalia  7 south africa  83 spain  81 st lucia  9 st vincent and grenadines  31 substance-use disorder  20 substitution treatment  31 sweden  31 switzerland  162 synthetic cannabinoids  31 taxation  58 teen use  43 thailand  78 thresholds  64 tobacco industry  17 traditional growers  162 tramadol  17 treatment  29 trinidad & tobago  15 tunisia  14 UK  282 UN Common Position  1 UN drug control  444 UNGASS  58 UNODC  111 uruguay  146 US drug policy  1192 vaping  2 venezuela  5 vietnam  5 violence  134 WHO  66 world drug report  11 yemen  6

This website

UN Drug Control

In 2011 the 1961 UN Single Convention on drugs will be in place for 50 years. In 2012 the international drug control system will exist 100 years since the International Opium Convention was signed in 1912 in The Hague. Does it still serve its purpose or is a reform of the UN Drug Conventions needed? This site provides critical background.

Drug Law Reform on the map

dlronthemap_und

Copyright © 2024 Drug Law Reform in Latin America

Website by WebWolf