How the UNODC welcomes NGO involvement : slurs and exclusion

The UNODC has been playing up its committment to NGO involvement in this year's Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting, but they certainly have a long way to go compared with how other members of the UN family engage with civil society. Or even to be just plain civil to civil society...

For a start the Executive Director of the UNODC deliberately slandered a whole section of the NGO community in his opening speech, calling groups who support a debate on wider drug law reforms/regulation "pro-drugs", despite Transform specifically writing to him, requesting that he desist with this childish and unwelcoming slur, on the basis that it was inaccurate, pejorative and offensive. Would he call the US Government "pro-drug" for supporting the regulation of tobacco and alcohol? No. We wrote to him about this after the last CND - see "Reformers are not pro-drug" - and got an acknowledgment of our concerns, but no actual response.

In addition:

• NGOs were initially excluded from the key meetings where the real decisions are taken on resolutions (The Committee of the Whole ), despite having been allowed to attend in previous years. This was only resolved following a procedural intervention from the UK delegation.
• NGOs have one room available for their use, that is too small for us all to fit in at once
• NGOs are expected to share a handful of computers with all the delegates
• The microphone for the single seat allocated for NGOs in the plenary was removed, though has now been returned after we complained.
• The 160 representatives from 55 NGOs (according to the UNODC website) have just this one tiny table (see pic below) to display and share all our materials. Despite assurances that space would be provided to put out materials for delegates to pick up, even this table only materialised today after NGOs complained yesterday.
   

'Ambassador. you are spoiling us'

To be meaningful, NGO engagement has to be about more than just letting us through the main door - it has to be about providing genuine opportunities for us to express our views and engage in meaningful dialogue with decision makers at the UN, and country delegations both in and outside the formal meetings.

I understand UNAIDS is pretty good on all of this, but to take an example I am familiar with, when I was working on international development issues I went to many Annual and Spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank where all the member countries get together.

Whilst far from perfect, and somewhat begrudgingly at first, these involved:

• NGO townhall style meetings with the Heads of the Bank and Fund, and Chairs of key committees where we got time to publicly question them on their policies, and closed meetings with them on key themes with groups of key NGOs
• Staff dedicated not just to NGO registration and support at the events, but also for liaison all year
• Plenty of computers and space dedicated for NGOs
• Plenty of space to display materials, posters etc where the delegates could pick it up
• Controlled but ready access to the press rooms and help distributing press releases to media

NGOs have a huge amount to offer in terms of independent and fresh thinking, factual knowledge and analysis that is not tied to a particular party or national political agenda. This input is invaluable not least forensuring transparency and accountability of these sprawling and often bureaucratic UN organisations to the public at large.

I just hope that Mr. Costa's successor (this is his last CND) takes NGO engagement far more seriously, rather than viewing it as an inconvenience and chore, and at the very least doesn't actively denigrate people and organisations like Transform whose sole purpose is to see the harms from the use and trade in drugs minimised - particularly when they have been awarded UN ECOSOC accreditation to attend and contribute to CND on a formal basis.

Further reading:
Civil Society: The Silenced Partners? Civil Society Engagement with the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (IHRA 2009)

UPDATE 16.00

i ) Mr. Costa is now going to have an informal dialogue meeting with NGOs tomorrow morning - at a time that clashes with a planned NGO briefing meeting.

ii) A second table has belatedly appeared to display NGO materials. (But where is the  designated and signposted NGO zone? Should we really have to beg for these things?)

Transform at CND in Vienna

As Steve Rolles heads off for California, I am at the UN's annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna for which Transform has ECOSOC special consultative status.

UN buildings in Vienna*

We are here as more than just spectators. In addition to attending a range of meetings that I will report on over the next few days, we have co-organised our own event, as part of the rapidly growing campaign for an Impact Assessment of drug policy, with our colleagues at the International Drug Policy Consortium. We are particularly pleased Carel Edwards the Head of the EC's Anti-Drugs Policy Unit has agreed to speak, as well as the Chair of IDPC Mike Trace, and myself (details below).

I would also recommend checking out the live CNDblog run by IHRA and IDPC which will provide regular  independent updates and reporting throughoutthe CND. IHRAs HR2 blog will also be reporting daily (report on Day 1 is already up)

CND 2010 side event -Time for an Impact Assessment of Drug Policy

10 Mar 2010
Vienna, Austria

All stakeholders in the drugs debate share the goal of a policy and legal structures that maximise social, environmental, physical and psychological wellbeing. Particularly at a time of economic stricture, it is also crucial that drug policy expenditures are cost-effective. Yet despite the many billions of dollars in drug-related spending each year, there are great concerns about the outcomes of the current approach, at the domestic and international level.

However, the debate around improving drug policy has been emotive, polarised and deadlocked. Proponents of different views of the best way forward tend to focus on the arguments and evidence that support their perspective. In this context, national governments and international agencies need to take a structured approach to assessing the best mix of evidence-based drug policies to promote human development, human security and human rights. Impact Assessment methodologies provide a potential mechanism for conducting an independent, neutral analysis that all stakeholders can support. These methodologies have been used to great effect in other policy areas, comparing the economic, environmental and social costs and benefits of existing policies against a full range of alternatives. For an Impact Assessment of drug policy, these alternatives should include more intensive/punitive enforcement approaches, as well as options for decriminalisation of personal use, and models for legal regulation of drug production and supply.

This introductory event on Impact Assessment will consist of short presentations and a Question and Answer session covering:

• How Impact Assessments can help;
• How Impact Assessments might be commissioned and structured, both nationally and internationally;
• Opportunities and Barriers; and
• Impact Assessment of drug policy and the EU.

Speakers:

• Carel Edwards, Head of the EC Anti-Drugs Policy Unit, DG JLS
• Mike Trace, Chair of IDPC
• Martin Powell, Campaigns Manager, Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

* pic: Steve Rolles 2008

UN CND: final human rights resolution emerges in diluted form

At March's UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna I had witnessed at first hand the painful process of some of the more progressive countries trying to have a resolution on human rights compliance in international drug policy adopted, against the express wishes of small group of opposing countries, perhaps unsurprisingly made up largely of some of the world's most notorious human rights abusers.





It was a welcome experience to be genuinely supportive of the UK's official high level efforts in the international arena, and impressed by their principled commitment to human rights despite potential political or diplomatic costs. The UK delegation was notably supported by various NGO partners, most prominently the IHRA HR2 team who deserve particular praise for their expert input on points of human rights law.

The Committee of the Whole at the UN CND (March 2008)

The human rights resolution has now been published in its final form - which is notably different from that in which it was originally submitted to the CND's Committee of the Whole for discussion (the COW is the sub-committee that discusses resolutions that are then agreed in the main plenary session). The COW's deliberations were often tortuous with hours spent wrangling over seemingly irrelevant tweaks in precise wording of specific sentences or the positioning of a punctuation points. Petty disagreements between countries, often evidently reflecting wider geo-political tensions that had little to do with the matters being discussed, were frequently played out in tense and protracted head to heads over minute often pointless details. Some countries (most prominently and perhaps least surprisingly; China), tried to have the resolution scrapped altogether, whilst others insisted that key sections be dramatically revised or removed completely. Notable casualties of this lengthy editing purge were any references to the rights of indigenous peoples (from countries with particular indigenous peoples issues), and any references to the death penalty (from retentionist states) although the issue of the use of the death penalty in drug enforcement practice loomed large elsewhere in the CND.

The other most notable change from the original text is the drastic excision of any real operational elements within the resolution relating to effective monitoring and reporting on human rights compliance in drug enforcement or any deadlines or commitments for the UNODC itself. Instead what remains is a worthy but essentially toothless re-commitment to the broad human rights principles of the UN.

None the less this still represents a substantial achievement for the nominating countries, as the first time that a human rights resolution has been passed by the CND in 51 sessions, as a useful starting point in developing future resolutions and policy discussions on human rights at UN level (it prompted several hours of unprecedented debate on the issue in the plenary), and as a real achievement for NGOs and civil society engagement with the CND. Despite other frustrations with the leaden bureaucracy's of the CND more generally, the NGO involvement in the process can be seen as positive step forward at this important juncture in UN drug policy with the 10 year strategy review approaching.

For more discussion see various accounts on the March CND on the IHRA HR2 blog:

A detailed account of the final resolution text, and how it was adapted from the original:

• The Life of a Human Rights Resolution at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs

How China and others attempted to derail and water down the resolution

• Discussion of political issues such as human rights are inappropriate at CND” – China leads charge against human rights resolution

An account of the process made at the event

• CND passes a ground-breaking - yet watered down - human rights resolution

For related discussion of current UN drug policy issues see also the new Transnational Institute UNGASS 10 year review page.

Transform will be attending the UN's NGO forum 'Beyond 2008' in Vienna in June (where the reports from the 8 regional consultations will be discussed and synthesised into one final report to be submitted to the 2009 CND as it deliberates over the next ten year strategy), as invited delegates and in our capacity holding special consultative UN ECOSOC status.

UNODC Director declares international drug control system is not ‘fit for purpose’

Below is a copy of our latest press release, drawing attention to one of the more encouraging discussion papers to emerge from this month's UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna - now available on the UNODC website. More coverage of the CND here here here and here. See also TNI and IHRA HR2 blogs. More discussion to follow.

UN building in Vienna, host to this years CND

Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime declares international drug control system is not ‘fit for purpose’

In an extraordinarily candid report, the head of the UN agency responsible for overseeing the international conventions on drugs, describes the multi-lateral drug control system as not ‘fit for purpose’. He also explains how the international regime has created significant unintended consequences.

The report, "Making drug control 'fit for purpose': Building on the UNGASS decade" was made available, but not widely disseminated, at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna earlier this month.

It states:

“There is indeed a spirit of reform in the air, to make the conventions fit for purpose and adapt them to a reality on the ground that is considerably different from the time they were drafted. With the multilateral machinery to adapt the conventions already available, all we need is: first, a renewed commitment to the principles of multilateralism and shared responsibility; secondly, a commitment to base our reform on empirical evidence and not ideology; and thirdly, to put in place concrete actions that support the above, going beyond mere rhetoric and pronouncement." (p.13)

“Looking back over the last century, we can see that the control system and its application have had several unintended consequences - they may or may not have been unexpected but they were certainly unintended.” (p.10)

“The first unintended consequence is a huge criminal black market that thrives in order to get prohibited substances from producers to consumers, whether driven by a 'supply push’ or a 'demand pull', the financial incentives to enter this market are enormous. There is no shortage of criminals competing to claw out a share of a market in which hundred fold increases in price from production to retail are not uncommon”. (p.10)

“The second unintended consequence is what one night call policy displacement. Public health, which is clearly the first principle of drug control…was displaced into the background”. (p.10)

“The third unintended consequence is geographical displacement. lt is often called the balloon effect because squeezing (by tighter controls) one place produces a swelling (namely an increase)in another place…” (p.10)

“A system appears to have been created in which those who fall into the web of addiction find themselves excluded and marginalized from the social mainstream, tainted with a moral stigma, and often unable to find treatment even when they may be motivated to want it.” (p.11)

“The concept of harm reduction is often made into an unnecessarily controversial issue as if there were a contradiction between (i) prevention and treatment on one hand and (ii) reducing the adverse health and social consequences of drug use on the other hand. This is a false dichotomy. These policies are complementary. (p.18)

“It stands to reason, then, that drug control, and the implementation of the drug Conventions, must proceed with due regard to health and human rights.” (p.19)

Danny Kushlick, Transform Drug Policy Foundation Director said:

“This report is a welcome contrast to the politically motivated rhetoric that has dominated much of the Commission on Narcotic Drug’s deliberations in the past. Mr Costa is to be congratulated for clearly stating what many in the drug policy reform movement have been saying for decades. That, for all its good intentions, the international drug control system has created unsustainable negative consequences and that its fitness for purpose in the modern world, and possible reforms, must be fundamentally explored.

“It is to be hoped that the issues that the Director has raised are seriously debated by and amongst member states in the coming year of review for the UN drug strategy. Despite the positive words from the UNODC director this substantive debate has clearly not begun yet.”

ENDS

Contact:

Danny Kushlick, Director +44 (0) 7970 174747
Steve Rolles, Information Officer +44 (0) 7980 213943

Notes for Editors:

"Making drug control 'fit for purpose': Building on the UNGASS decade" (pdf)

(update April 02: the above link is now to the UNODC site instead of the scanned copy previously on the Transform website)

• In its review of UK drug policy of 2002 the UK Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee made 24 recommendations including:

"That the Government initiates a discussion within the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of alternative ways - including the possibility of legalisation and regulation - to tackle the global drugs dilemma." (recommendation 24)

• In 2003 the UK Government published the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit report on drug policy, demonstrating that global supply side enforcement was responsible for many of the harms associated with the trade and use of heroin and cocaine. Full report available here Transform briefing on the report here )

Image copyright Transform 2008

More reflections on the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union have produced a set of short films that discuss some of the issues raised by the UNODC director's speech at this months UN Commission on Narcotic drugs in Vienna. The general reaction, that I shared from my experiences at the event, is that whilst there was some positive rhetoric in his words, suggesting that some of the messages from the NGO community are being heard (in particular the need for human rights observance in drug law enforcement and a move away from some of the more obviously excessive and failed elements of the 'drug war') there was a vital need to see these good intentions translated into action and more effective and de-politicised monitoring systems. Litttle or no evidence of this was forthcoming in the speeches or elsewhere.




Some of the director's unscripted remarks have also prompted concerns that the engagement with Civil Society is tokenism, essentially a PR attempt to gloss over the continuation of the failed punitive approach of past decades, remaining heavily skewed towards military and police enforcement and supply reduction. Even if this is not the case there is still a huge distance to travel before the appalling failings of global prohibition can be corrected and a more just, humane and effective drug policy built on public health principles and effective legal regulation can be put in place. For the small progress that is being achieved tempering some drug war extremes there remains precious little engagement with the debate around modernising the UN drug control systems and related legislation.

There was similarly a familiar degree of sophistry when it cames to claims for the success of the UN global drug strategy. Like our very own Home Office the UNODC parades process successes and cherry picked, mis-contextualised and misleading data as success whilst failing to acknowledge long term systematic failings against meaningful indicators (often including its own). 1998's fantasy aspirations for a 'drug free world' have evaporated, to be replaced by claims that 'containing the problem' is success - when not even this modest claim, on even cursory inspection of their own dubious literature, has been achieved. Some of these issues are discussed in the drugreporter blog entry here, and in this second short film of interviews with various NGO representatives on the subject...



The International Drug Policy Consortium will be producing a detailed report on the CND in the next few days, including text of the various NGO contributions.