UNITED NATIONS DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME OPENS NEW COUNTRY OFFICE IN TEHRAN; WILL THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS BE A PRIORITY IN UNDCP'S ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTRY?

New York, 28 January 1999. In order to boost cooperation in the common fight against production, trafficking and abuse of illicit drugs, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has set up a new country office in Tehran, IRAN.

Radically disagreeing with the overall UNDCP's strategy on demand reduction and crop eradication programmes, the Transnational Radical Party hopes that in signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Mr. Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of UNDCP, has foreseen al the necessary safeguards to insure that, in the implementation of the Agency's projects, a particular attention will be paid to the respect of fundamental human rights in IRAN.

The Transnational Radical Party believes that the 'loss' of "more than 2,000 people over the past 20 years in the fight against illicit drug production and trafficking" as stated in yesterday's UNDCP's press release, is the result of the War on Drugs, which has spread terror policies around the world against producers, dealers and consumers alike. A war that has caused more harms than benefits.

Finally, the Transnational Radical Party calls on UNDCP to insure equal access for both sexes to all the educational and prevention programmes in demand reduction launched in the region by the agency.