Civil society engagement in during the lead up to the UN High Level Segment has been for the first time a properly structured programmed of NGO involvement put in place by the 'Beyond 2008' initiative. Nine regional seminars were held through the first half of 2008, and 300 delegates drawn from these events gathered in Vienna in July 2008 to put together a NGO consensus declaration for presentation to the CND.
Antonio Costa, the Executive Director of UNODC gave a speech to the High Level Segment of the 2009 Commission on Narcotic Drugs on the 11th March 2009. The speech drew heavily on a discussion paper published by the UNODC shortly before the meeting - "Organised Crime and Its Threat to Security".
In a statement on the eve of the adoption of the new political declaration, the High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, called for a greater focus on human rights and harm reduction in drug policy.
The seventh of the IDPC's regular "UNGASS News" updates, keeping the network up to speed with developments in the UN drug policy review process is now available, and includes an update on the practical arrangements now in place for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the High Level Segment, opportunities for civil society involvement, and a report on the latest round of negotiating meetings preparing the political declaration and annex.
A programme of satellite events to be held by IDPC and its partners to supplement the fifty-second Commission on Narcotic Drugs and its high-level segment is to follow shortly...
The Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Michel_Kazatchkine, urged the president of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to send a strong message to the world with clear and specific language that calls for comprehensive harm reduction services.
At the end of 2008, about 1,500 persons were released who were in Ecuadorian prisons sentenced for drug trafficking. The measure, known as "pardon for mules,” singled out a specific group of prisoners who were victims of indiscriminate and disproportionate legislation that was in effect for many years.
Approximately 50 producers of coca leaves, cannabis and opium poppy from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia and more than 20 experts and NGO representatives gathered at this first world forum in Barcelona, Spain from January 29 to 31, 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.
Michel Sidibe, the newly appointed Executive Director of UNAIDS has written to Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, the Chairperson of CND to convey his hope "that the Commission will further advance UN system-wide coherence in relation to the body of evidence in support of harm reduction measures in tackling drug use.
In the build-up to the High Level Segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna in March 2009, IHRA has launched two advocacy tools to inform government delegations and civil society about the global appeal of - and support for - the harm reduction approach. Please click here for further information.
At the 2008 NIJ Conference, David Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, talked about his work to combat drug markets, especially the High Point Intervention, an innovative programme that has now been replicated in at least 25 sites around the country.