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- Category: News
- Published: 18 March 2013
Last week was the 56th Session of Comission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna and ECAD was there monitoring and participating in a number of meetings. The pressure of this week is enormous in terms of meetings, networking and the flow of information among governmental delegations and NGO participants. UNODC Civil Society Team covered the work of over 150 NGOs with a status at the UN Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) present at the CND week this year. As a matter of fact, the number of NGOs was much higher, not all of the organisations present had ECOSOC status with the UN.
ECAD was among plenty of NGOs supporting the role of the UN Conventions on narcotic drugs in the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs, which acts as a common platform for NGOs willing to interact with governments at the CND level. In regards to working with the NGOs with polarising views on UN Conventions at the Vienna NGO Committee level, it is very important for our members that ECAD is active and dares to speak up. Therefore ECAD is glad to announce that we will continue capitalising on this work for the 2 years to come, as we were again re-elected to the Board of the VNGOC.Second Informal Civil Society Hearing was held by the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs with an active participation of the First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Finland, Ms. Kirsti Pohjankukka. Far from many governments are open for meeting eye to eye with NGOs working in their own country, but Finland, Norway and Sweden are the positive exceptions in this repect.
Many resolutions get adopted at the CND each year, however there is little follow-up on the plans mentioned there. Second Informal Civil Society Hearing focused on the implementation of the Political Declaration and the Plan of Action that mentions the cooperation between the governments and NGOs in question, their positive relationship in the Nordic countries is hard to underestimate.
Informal Dialogues, organized by the Vienna NGO Committee with Mr. Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC and Mr. Raymond Yans, President of the INCB were a positive proof of encouragement of civil society participation in the preparations of UN General Assembly Session (UNGASS) in 2016, so NGOs have some good hopes of organizing a Formal Civil Society Hearing next time.
This CND Session was very much about the implementation of the international drug control treaties, drug demad reduction and the launch of the International Standards on Drug Prevention. Among other interesting events was a statement made by the president of plurinational state of Bolivia, Evo Morales addressed the CND on the benefits of nationalisation of the working against drug trafficking. (As announced on many news engines, Bolivia requested the re-admission to the UN conventions with a reservation for respect to local culture and custom of coca leaf-chewing. Readmission does not mean the eradication of coca cultivation, but there is a comprehensive will of reducing the surplus of coca production, said Bolivian government representatives. The respect to UN initiatives is unanimous as long as the goal is peace in Bolivia.)
At the launch of the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention, UNODC head for prevention Dr. Gilberto Gerra spoke about maltreatment in childhood, making a change in the development of the brain, as the latest studies point that lower levels of maternal care create a "silenced DNA", as opposite to "active DNA".Dr. Gerra also mentioned new and interesting studies pinpointing cocaine-activated genes, which make people using cocaine more vulnerable to stress. UNODC Prevention science researcher and consultant, Dr. Zili Sloboda spoke ardently in favour of connecting to people and including, exploring resilience and vulnerability of young people in their family environment, underlining that prevention is very much about socialisation among humans.
The new Prevention Standards underline risk and protection factors, addressing the effectiveness of warning information that has to be accompanied by social disapproval and supported by the right educational approach. There are people, who are naturally resistant to this kind of information, the so called "novelty seekers", that is why developing selective prevention, where high risk groups are specifically targeted is of great importance. You will find the link to International Standards on Drug Use Prevention here.
Russian drug tzar, Mr. Victor Ivanov made a statement about the Afghan right to development, as a new paradigm and new philosophy for tackling drug production in the country. Alternative development and social and economic development is underscored in the speech of Mr. Ivanov "Afghan Drug production against the Right to Development" (PDF-file). This view as an alternative to waging war discussion gives a new angle to the old debate. The angle that is absolutely worth noting.