Audiencia parlamentaria UIP-ONU: acción sobre las drogas

El problema mundial de las drogas y cómo abordarlo será el tema principal de una importante audiencia parlamentaria que tendrá lugar en la sede de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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The world drug problem and how to address it will be the focus of a major parliamentary hearing at the United Nations in New York on 8-9 February. Hundreds of MPs from around the world will attend the event, which will be opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, IPU President Saber Chowdhury, UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft, and UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Yuri Fedotov.

The hearing, “The World Drug Problem: Taking Stock and Strengthening the Global Response”, will review what progress parliaments have made on the issue since a plan of action on illegal drugs was adopted by governments in 2009. The plan set 2019 as a target date for eliminating or significantly reducing supply, demand and associated criminal activity such as money laundering.

MPs, experts and representatives from international organizations and civil society will examine the problem and the global response, focusing on key areas such as finding the most effective solutions to new and existing challenges, increasing international cooperation, and identifying the links between drug trafficking, organized crime and corruption.

They will address the underlying question of whether the so-called “war on drugs”, which relies on a law-enforcement solution to the problem of illicit drugs, is working as intended. The MPs will also explore whether drug policy needs rethinking in light of the new people-centred Sustainable Development Goals.

The impact of the global problem can be felt in many areas, including the diversion of resources from healthcare to law enforcement, the displacement of people affected by drug production and the criminalization and marginalization of drug users.

IPU-UN parliamentary hearings enable MPs to feed their views and experiences into UN work and decision-making processes, as well as increasing their understanding of those processes.

The conclusions and recommendations of this hearing will be fed into a UN General Assembly special session on the world drug problem, UNGASS 2016, in April.

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC UN Photo