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183 civil society groups urge UN Secretary-General to lead historic global drug policy review with a bold, inclusive and transformative vision
Dear Secretary-General Guterres,
The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), alongside 182 civil society organisations from 59 countries, strongly encourage you to play a leading role in guiding the upcoming independent review of the UN drug control system to ensure a bold and successful outcome — one that brings long-overdue alignment of global drug policy with the UN pillars of peace and security, human rights, and development, and contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
On 14 March 2025, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) agreed to establish a multidisciplinary panel of 19 independent experts, serving in their personal capacity, to develop clear, action-oriented recommendations aimed at reviewing the UN drug control ‘machinery’ and enhancing the implementation of the three international drug control conventions and other relevant international instruments (including human rights obligations), as well as the achievement of all international drug policy commitments (including those adopted at the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs).
Numerous studies by the UN human rights system, including the latest reports of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, as well as by civil society, have highlighted the devastating impacts of the UN drug control regime on health, human rights, the environment, development and peace and security. As a result, the High Commissioner for Human Rights has repeatedly called for ‘transformative change’ in global drug policy.
This independent expert panel provides a historic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to propose reforms that will further the health and welfare of humankind, social inclusion and social justice, and help to achieve the SDGs.
However, this process is also likely to face political resistance. Your leadership will therefore be critical to ensure that the panel’s work remains transparent and constructive, and that it delivers bold recommendations needed to bring the UN drug control system into alignment with the rest of the UN system.
The CND resolution tasks you with selecting five members of the independent panel, as well as one of the co-chairs for the panel. We urge you to ensure that these nominations are of the highest calibre – individuals with strong human rights and/or health expertise, and a clear commitment to an objective, comprehensive review and reform of the current system. The co-chair should also have the credibility and proven ability to encourage constructive dialogue, facilitate consultations with other stakeholders, maintain the independence of the panel and its work, ensure that the findings are adequately reflected in the conclusions of the panel, and guide the conversation to identify ambitious recommendations for improvement.
In addition to the five panellists you will be nominating, the five regional groups of the CND will select two panellists each, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) will select three, and the World Health Organization (WHO) one. However, other relevant parts of the UN system cannot select panellists. Enhancing UN system-wide coherence in the review process, as reflected in the Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drugs, will therefore primarily rely on your selection, especially with regard to human rights and development. Therefore, to ensure the appropriate balance on the panel, we recommend that your panellist selections be made after those made by the CND, INCB and WHO, in an effort to respond to any identified gaps from that process.
We also urge you to ensure that the panel includes representatives of the communities most affected by the so-called ‘war on drugs’, including people who use drugs, people involved in the cultivation of crops, Indigenous peoples, and people from ethnic and racial minorities.
Furthermore, to ensure a successful outcome for this critical initiative, we urge you to encourage Member States to provide adequate funding and political support for the expert panel, including its consultations with civil society, Indigenous Peoples, young people and other affected groups.
Last but not least, we call on you to express public support for the panel, encourage its members to deliver bold and actionable recommendations, and ensure the meaningful discussion and implementation of the panel’s eventual recommendations. This could, for instance, be done via your public statement annually released at the occasion of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June.
We have attached to this letter a copy of IDPC’s latest advocacy note in which we provide detailed recommendations on the review panel, and we also encourage you to read this joint statement delivered at the occasion of the International Harm Reduction Conference that took place in Bogotá, Colombia in April 2025.
As ever, we remain available to support you in these endeavours.
Yours sincerely,
Ann Fordham
Executive Director
International Drug Policy Consortium
The full list of signatories is available in the PDF version of the letter.