UN reaffirms its war on drugs

[Digit]

Bulletin of the International Antiprohibitionist League on the world campaign for the reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs

Special Number - 17 April 2003

Sign the appeal to reform the UN Conventions on Drugs



UN RENEWS PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO PROHIBITION WITHOUT ASSESSING THE DISASTROUS RESULTS OF INTERNATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICIES

Vienne 17 april 2003

The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) and the International Antiprohibitionist League (IAL), two organizations that hare promoting a worldwide campaign to reform the three UN Conventions on Drugs to allow a legal regulation of illicit drugs have participated in the 46th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and its Ministerial Segment with a delegation comprising Marco Cappato, MEP and Co-ordinator of the Parliamentarians for Anti-prohibitionist Action and Marco Perduca, Executive Director of the IAL.

Statement issued by Cappato and Perduca on behalf of the TRP and IAL:

"The Vienna UN meeting has failed to take into consideration the failures produced by the UN grand plan to eradicate all drugs from the face of the earth launched at the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session. Not only the UN has not devoted any time of the 46th session of this last CND to evaluate what prohibition has NOT been able to achieve, but also no member state has dared to put the issue of the reform of the three UN Conventions - the legal arsenal of prohibition - on the table for formal consideration.

In an environment where the only "independent" speaking opportunity before the plenary was granted to the most prohibitionist group present at the UN, and where critical voices have been totally silenced during the debate, we need to re-launch our worldwide parliamentary campaign to urge national legislators to promote the reform of the UN Conventions within their national assemblies. Over the last few months, more than 250 legislators from 30 countries have endorsed a parliamentary motion that calls on the UN to open an evaluation process of its drug-related programs and to initiate a formal process of revision of the three UN documents. Similar texts have been introduced at the European Parliament (where it was defeated only by one vote), as well as in Canada, New Zealand, Greece, Portugal and Colombia.

The unwritten golden rule of the UN that ties all decisions to consensus needs to be broken if we want to make real concrete progress on the drug question. Progressive liberal-democracies should establish a "coalition of the willing" and address once and for all the failures of prohibition and launch an initiative to amend and or reform the Conventions. Also through a vote at the UN.

IS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MEETING ITS DRUG CONTROL TARGETS? THE ANSWER IS NO.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, since the General Assembly's 20th special session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem, "efforts by governments to respond to an aggressively evolving illicit drug situation have gained new momentum" and "international cooperation, especially information-sharing and joint action against illegal drug sources and trafficking routes" are quoted as major achievements in this regard.

Statement by Marco Perduca, UN Representative for the Transnational Radical Party and Executive Director of the International Antiprohibitionist League:

"The Commission on Narcotic Drugs is closing its 46th session with some 23 resolutions all adopted by consensus. In none of the texts discussed there is any attempt to analyze how and if the international community is meeting its drug control targets, nor is there the slight doubt that the strategies contained in the he Political Declaration adopted at the 1998 UNGASS have proved be effective in any way.

"In the final versions of the documents adopted by the CND, the only major achievement has been the deletion of all possible references to the mere presentation of different approaches to the drug issue as well as any acknowledgment of a possible advisory role that other UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization or UNAIDS can play in assisting the international community in its attempt to control drugs worldwide.

"With the notable exception of a very small group of countries, such as Canada, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and Greece, the 46th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs has not been able to put on the table many controversial issues that might have been instrumental in preparing the 2-day ministerial segment that will start on 16 April in a more pragmatic and assessment-driven way.

"In line with the outcome of meetings like this convened in Vienna over the last four decades, the 46th session of the CND will only be remembered for having been totally faithful to the governmental prohibitionist regime, allowing only one speaking opportunity for a presentation of the "efforts" carried out by so-called civil society groups to support the integrity of the three UN Conventions on Drugs.

"The failures of the CND are the product of the "golden unwritten rule" that wants the UN tied to consensual decision-making. If democratic governments will continue to cave in to the pressure of authoritiarian regime or questionable democracies and reject as a matter of policy, the possibility to vote on documents, the future of the Organization of the United Nations will only be that of a huge secretariat to implement a surreal mix of ideologies and programmes around the world. May the Nobel Peace Prize rest in Peace


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Editor in Chief: Marco Perduca
Director: Vincenzo Donvito
Layout & Distribution: C.E.D. Roma

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