In March 2008, a two-year long 'period of global reflection' on the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem started. What have been the results? What space was there be for civil society to participate in the different stages of the process? What were the key issues on the table? What kind of improvements in the functioning of the UN drug control system have been achieved?
The most recent UNGASS took place in 2016. To follow the preparations and proceedings check the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) special webpage.
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As UNGASS approaches, yet another devastating UN critique of the drug war is published
Steve Rolles (Transform)Tuesday, December 8, 2015A significant positive outcome has already emerged from next year’s UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in the form of much more direct engagement in key drug policy issues from a range of UN agencies - beyond the prohibitionist silo of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Civil society organisations have, for years, been attempting to highlight the negative impacts of the international drug control system on issues relating to the core UN pillars of human rights, development, and peace and security.
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Supporting the process towards UNGASS 2016
The Cartagena Dialogue – organized by four governments and four civil society organizations, with the participation of 79 official and non-governmental delegates from three continents – was designed to strengthen the UNGASS 2016 process by identifying key ideas that help to review drug policies and by making steps to coordinate inter-regional efforts on the preparation, negotiation of the Outcome Document and on the UNGASS itself in April 2016.
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UNGASS 2016: Background memo on the proposal to establish an expert advisory group
Several countries have recently expressed support for the idea to use the mechanism of an expert advisory group again for the UNGASS in 2016
Transnational Institute (TNI)
November 2015Significant changes in the global drug policy landscape are shaping up in the UNGASS 2016 preparations, in the direction of more humane and proportional responses based on health, human rights and development principles. But few countries are willing to openly acknowledge the existence of structural deficiencies with regard to UN system-wide coherence, the institutional architecture and the legal treaty framework. In spite of more and more cracks in the Vienna consensus and treaty breaches in the area of cannabis policies, questioning the basic principles of the international drug control system is still largely a political taboo.
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New UN think-tank report: What comes after the War on Drugs?
Some states, particularly in the Americas, see UNGASS 2016 as an opportunity to rethink global drug control
The Huffington Post (US)
Wednesday, November 3, 2015The UN's own thinktank, the United Nations University (UNU), published a report entitled What Comes After the War on Drugs? that argues that UNGASS 2016 will largely confirm the current approach to drug control, despite growing calls for change. The report, based on a series of consultations involving over 50 Member States, 16 UN entities and 55 civil society organizations, considers the major political and policy trends leading into UNGASS 2016, and offers recommendations for strengthening global drug policy efforts at a time of deepening divisions.
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IDPC recommendations for the "ZERO DRAFT" of the UNGASS outcome document
IDPC Advocacy Note
July 2015Preparations are gathering pace for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs, to be held on the 19th to 21st April 2016 in New York. Following several months of discussion on procedural elements, attention is now focused on negotiating the content of the "short, substantive, concise and action-orientated outcome document comprising a set of operational recommendations" to be approved by the General Assembly next April. At the CND intersessional meeting on 12th June, countries and regional groups were invited to submit their first ideas for what could be included in this Outcome Document, by a deadline of 11th September.
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Civil society urges EU leadership on drug policy ahead of UNGASS
“Budapest Group” releases recommendations on EU engagement at 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS)
The Budapest Group is a network of European NGOs working in the field of drug policy reform, including Harm Reduction International, the Global Drug Policy Program of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Transform Drug Policy Foundation, the International Drug Policy Consortium (also hear public policy alumna Gloria Lai on the topic here), the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, and the Transnational Institute.
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International Law and Drug Policy Reform
Report of a GDPO/ICHRDP/TNI/WOLA Expert Seminar
Final report of proceedings
July 2015Drug policy reform is currently higher on the international agenda than it has been in recent memory. With a United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs set for 19-21 April 2016, the prominence of this issue will further increase. Significant legal and policy reforms at the national level have taken place in recent years that pose considerable challenges to the international legal framework for drug control, and beg important questions regarding states’ international legal obligations.
Download the report (PDF)
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Minister Golding addresses UN Debate on international drug policy
Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
Thursday, May 7, 2015Senator Mark Golding, minister of justice, participated in a plenary session with several UN member states at the United Nations in a High Level Thematic Debate on International Drug Policy in preparation for the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) scheduled for April 19-21 2016. Minister Golding highlighted Jamaica’s perspectives called for open and inclusive discussions, including the creation of an expert advisory group to review the United Nations drug policy control architecture.
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Improving global drug policy: Comparative perspectives and UNGASS 2016
Vanda Felbab-Brown and Harold Trinkunas (eds)Brookings Institute
April 2015As the world prepares for the 2016 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016), an increasing number of countries around the world now find the regime’s emphasis on punitive approaches to illicit drugs to be problematic and are asking for reform. In this moment of global disagreement, the Brookings project on Improving Global Drug Policy provides a unique comparative evaluation of the effectiveness and costs of international counternarcotics policies and best approaches to reform.
See the content (outside link)
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UNGASS 2016: Prospects for Treaty Reform and UN System-Wide Coherence on Drug Policy
Martin JelsmaBrookings Institute
April 2015This paper explores key lessons from the 1990 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Drug Abuse (UNGASS 1990) and the 1998 Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 1998), and tracks subsequent policy events and trends. It discusses the wide array of increasing tensions and cracks in the "Vienna consensus," as well as systemic challenges and recent treaty breaches. Various options for treaty reform are explored.
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