NEW YORK, JUNE 8-10, 1998

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0. WHO'S WHO

UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY (UNGA): is the principal body through which the United Nations adopts resolutions, conventions and protocols, approve funds. It also serves as the forum through which individual governments express their views.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC): the Council is made of 54 Member States, and among other issues, it is responsible for formulating overall UN policies in the field of drug abuse control, coordinating drug control activities with the full range of economic and social programmes of the UN, and making relevant recommendations to Governments.

COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS (CND): it is made of 53 Member States, and is one of ECOSOC's six functional commissions. It assists the Council in supervising the application of international conventions and agreements dealing with narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. It also considers any changes that may be required in the existing machinery, and may prepare new conventions and international instruments. It is the central policy-making body within the UN for all questions related to drug abuse control.

UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME (UNDCP): advises and assists Governments and specialized agencies on the implementation of the international drug control treaty system.

I. INTRODUCTION

The UNGA will held a special session devoted to the fight against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and related activities. The session will adopt a solemn political declaration with which Member States will renew their commitment on the fight against drugs, especially through the implementation of the UN conventions and other UN policies. A declaration on demand reduction will also be approved, generically backing programs of prevention, education, treatment and rehabilitation.

Some specific measures will be proposed in order to strengthen the international cooperation system for the fight against drugs, mainly in the field of judicial cooperation, money laundering, chemical precursors and stimulants, and crop eradication.

No evaluation, revision of or amendment to the UN conventions on drugs is on the UNGASS agenda. Heads of State, Prime Ministers and top level Governments representatives are expected to participate in order to confirm their commitment in the prohibitionist war on drugs.

No controversial issue like harm reduction, decriminalization or legalization of any possible type of treatment or drug, is on the agenda. In fact, the UN is not supposed to tackle aspects that are under the competence of the national governments, but just to facilitate the international cooperation and to control the trade of authorized quantities (for medical and scientific purpose) of illicit substances. However, the UN bodies play a major role in promoting prohibitionist legislations all over the world, and the international cooperation encouraged by the UN is mainly about the repression of illicit drug production and trafficking.

The UN conventions, its programmes and bodies are therefore exercising a strong political pressure against the possibility of exploring other policies which could be alternative to the current War on Drugs. If some Member States would decide to authorize an important licit market for substances that today are illegal, the whole UN system of narcotic drugs control would need to be re-discussed.

These are the reasons why it is extremely important that the UNGASS be reached by the voice of those who propose alternative solutions to the drug question.

II. HISTORY AND AGENDA

On 28 October 1993 theUNGA, with resolution A/48/12, requested ECOSOC to examine the status of the international cooperation within the UN system against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotics and psychotropic substances in order to recommend ways and means to improve such cooperation.

On 27 July 1995, ECOSOC, with resolution 1995/40, after having taken into account the recommendations of the Executive Director of the UNDCP and the resolution of the CND, recommended that the GA and the CND should give priority consideration to the proposal to convene an international conference for the purpose of evaluating the international situation and the status of international cooperation on drugs.

On 21 December 1995, UNGA resolution A/50/631, requested CND to discuss fully, as a matter of priority, this issue of helding an international conference, focusing inter alia on the assessment of existing strategies, as well as on the consideration of new strategies, methods, practical measures and concrete actions to strenghten international cooperation on drugs.

On 23 July 1996, ECOSOC resolution 1996/17, expressed the Council's support for the proposal.

On 12 December 1996, UNGA resolution A/RES/51/64 decided "to convene a special session in order to consider the fight against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and related activities, and to propose new strategies, methods, practical activities and special measures to strengthen international cooperation in addressing the problem of illicit drugs".

In the same section of the resolution, it is also stressed that the special session should "be devoted to assessing the existing situation within the framework of a comprehensive and balanced approach that includes all aspects of the problem, with a view to strengthening international cooperation [ ], and within the framework of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and other relevant conventions and international instruments".

CND was appointed to act as the preparatory body for the special session, to identify more precisely the issues to be considered at the special session. The first session of the Commission, held in Vienna March 26-27 1997, was dedicated to preparing the process of the Special Session of the UNGA (UNGASS). The Commission also agreed that the following issues would be considered during the preparatory process:

Reaffirmation of the political commitment of governments for international drug control.

Demand reduction: adoption of the guiding principles on demand reduction and proposals for implementation.

Strategic measures:

measures to counter illicit manufacture of, traffic in and abuse of stimulants;

measures to enhance the control/monitoring of precursors frequently used in the manufacture of illicit drugs;

measures to promote judicial cooperation;

measures to counter money laundering;

eradication of illicit crops and alternative development.

The Commission on narcotic drugs convened 3 informal open-ended meetings in July, October and December 1997, to discuss those items.

On March 16-20, 1998, there will be the second session of CND that will act as a preparatory body for the UNGASS. This session of the Commission will be the last formal meeting before the June event, and will be therefore charged of finalizing all the texts that will be submitted to the General Assembly. The following points are included in the provisional agenda of the Commission:

draft provisional agenda for the special session of the General Assembly;

reports of the informal inter-sessional meetings;

elements for inclusion in the draft political declaration;

draft declaration on the guiding principles of demand reduction;

other proposals submitted to the special session;

review of international drug control regime: strengthening United Nations machinery drugs control.

III. CONTENTS AND COMMENTARIES

UNGASS has never been conceived to be an occasion to reconsider UN drug-related policies. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that any reference to an "evaluation of the international situation and the status of international co-operation" has soon disappeared from the UN language, and substituted with necessity of strengthening the international co-operation and assessing the existing situation.

An evaluation should have implied taking into consideration the disastrous results of prohibitionist drug policies all over the world. Data that can easily be found in official reports, including the UNDCP 1997 World Drug Report. According to which:

illicit production of opium poppy has more than tripled since 1985;

illicit production of coca has doubled over the 1985-1994 period;

since the mid 1980s the world has faced a wave of synthetic stimulants abuse with an increase of approximately nine times in the quantity seized;

the total revenue accruing to the illicit drug industry lies somewhere around $ 400B (8% of the total international trade.

None of this figures will be taken into consideration by the UNGASS. Moreover, no alternative policy will be discussed and no revision of the international conventions will be proposed. The only goal of the Session is to find a way of strengthening current policies, which means giving more resources to the implementation bodies of the international control on narcotic drugs. What follows is a brief overview of the different items.

POLITICAL DECLARATION

The purpose of the political declaration is to contribute to mustering the political will to increase the number of States parties to the treaties, and to advance their full implementation of the conventions.

As mentioned above, the final proposal for the political declaration will be discussed in March in Vienna.

The two documents available up to now are both non-papers of the European Union and of U.S.

The U.S. text, which has been used as the basis for the discussion during the last working group, focuses its attention on the following points:

the fight against drugs should be guided by the implementation of the UN conventions through national legislation that must provide authorities to attack all aspects of illicit drug trafficking;

illicit cultivation of opium and coca should end by the year 2008, using all available means including alternative development policies.

The EU draft declaration, after having noted that "the international situation has not improved" sets the following:

reaffirms the political commitment of all Member States to combating the drug phenomenon and recalls the urgent need for the international community to rally its effort in the fight against drugs;

appeals for universal ratification;

calls upon the need to strengthen and improve the existing United Nations drug-control mechanism, including funding mechanism;

With theses premises the political declaration will not be anything different from a commitment of all UN Member States to continue the "War on Drugs". Such tough and unrealistic commitment would be in reality a sign of deep weakness of the UN machinery, and, if critically read, it can constitute a sort of solemn war declaration at the climax of a global defeat.

DECLARATION ON THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF DEMAND REDUCTION

In the UN language the term "demand reduction" is used to describe policies or 'programmes' directed at reducing the consumer demand for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances covered by international drug conventions. The distribution of these drugs is forbidden by the law or, in certain cases, limited to medical or pharmaceutical channels.

The draft declaration prepared by the CND pledges a "sustained political, social, health and educational commitment to investing in demand reduction programmes that will contribute towards reducing public health problems, improving individual health and well-being, promoting social and economic integration, reinforcing family system and making communities safer". The demand reduction programmes should cover all areas of prevention, from discouraging initial use to reducing the negative health and social consequences of drug abuse.

The demand reduction declaration could be in a way the only "non-belligerent" text coming out from the UNGASS. However, the language of the draft declaration is very elusive about any possible reforms of existing national policies and, it is not clear, which kind of practical measures would be taken into consideration. The reasons for this declaration seem to be just to counter-balance the focus on traffic repression and on the international drug control co-operation; it seems that the UN is trying to "humanize" the 'War on Drugs' and its side effects. Unfortunately, this has been done without facing any controversial or political aspects that are related to the question.

STRATEGIC MEASURES

The so-called strategic measures are conceived to strengthen the adherence and the implementation of international drug control treaties in drug-related issues such as judicial co-operation, chemicals and stimulants production, money-laundering, and also to reshape the crop eradication policies.

The UN prohibitionist approach is to broaden more and more its scope, which would imply, of course, more power and more resources for the repression bodies.

a- JUDICIAL COOPERATION

Measures are envisaged to further extradition of drug trafficker, to protect judges, prosecutors and witnesses, to intercept communications, to monitor bank accounts and to simplify confiscation proceedings.

A new international "emergency law" is being built inside the anti-drug legislative framework, with major threat to individual freedom and liberty.

B- CHEMICAL DRUGS AND STIMULANTS

Priority actions has been identified, at an international as well as a national level, to strengthen controls over precursors in order to prevent their diversion to illicit channels and to apprehend international traffickers through controlled delivery. The measures would imply systems of import-export authorizations, as well as the improvement of the collection and the sharing of information on the licit uses of these substances.

The monitoring of new substances, in order to prohibit them as fast as possible, is the UN strategy also for amphetamine type stimulants and chemical drugs.

Further restrictions to the market of chemical drugs seem to be unrealistic, and they are already propelling the criminal research for ever newer and more powerful substances.

C- MONEY-LAUNDERING

The draft proposal urges all the States to implement the anti-money-laundering provisions of the UN conventions of 1988, with the establishment of a legislative framework to criminalize money-laundering resulting from serious crimes, especially through the confiscation of the proceeds of crime and the international co-operation. It is also proposed the establishment of an effective financial/regulatory regime to deny access to national and international financial systems by criminals, and the implementation of enforcement measures to provide tools for detection, investigation, prosecution and conviction of criminals.

If the aim of depriving criminals of the fruits of their crimes is worth of interest, no evaluation is made about the huge costs of the fight against money-laundering, also in terms of restriction to the free circulation of capitals, and the meager results obtained up to now. It is evident that no consideration has been given on the possibility of solving the problem at the very roots through the eventual legalization of drugs.

D- CROP ERADICATION AND ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The UN focus on producer countries regards complementing crop eradication with the so-called alternative development policies, which aim at strengthening self-sustaining production systems as well as economic, social and environmental processes for the benefit of communities and population groups affected by illicit cultivation. Recently the Chief of UNDCP has proposed the UN to finance a crop eradication programme in Afghanistan under the supervision of the Taliban guerrilla, the project has been approved by CND. It is interesting to note how the UN will be giving money to a group of religious fighters that found their activity on the constant violation of human rights, mainly of those of women.

The draft proposal for the UNGASS appeals to international donors to assist producer countries in their task of alternative development. This assistance should be linked to national commitment and strong political will of producer countries to implement the provision of the 1988 Conventions which require State Parties to adopt measures to consider illicit cultivation of opium poppy, coca bush, or cannabis plant for the production of narcotic drugs as a criminal offence the.

Transnational Radical Party - New York

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