Sixtieth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs was held in Vienna, Austria from 13-17 March 2017. It has been a session with the record number of participants and side events. Around 100 side events and numerous exhibitions were held during the session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which was attended by more than 1,500 people representing Member States, civil society, academia and international organizations.
The main topic of the discussions at the CND was focused on the implementation of last year’s UNGASS outcome document and planning for the upcoming review of the 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action in 2019.
A resolution by countries in Eastern Europe directed to promote community, family and school-based prevention approaches and strategies was adopted. The resolution took an extensive standpoint on prevention, including the role of risk factors, the importance of families and communities in prevention and the need for culturally fitting, multi-component interventions to prevent drug use.
After the discussion at the plenary the Member States decided to schedule a number of New Psychoactive Substances and some precursors that are used in the production of the opioid Fentanyl, which caused a large number of overdoses in the USA and Eastern Europe in recent years.
Among other things discussed were a resolution to prevent HIV /AIDS and other blood borne diseases, principles for Alternative Development and the harms of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).
Drug Policy Network South East Europe was first time present at the UN premises in Vienna, formally as part of the Diogenis delegation, supported by the EU project. It was a good opportunity to network with our peers from civil society organisations (including preparatory meeting organized by the IDPC and VNGOC meeting), to meet with representatives of the formal national delegations (Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, among others), and to hear a lot of good experiences at the side events.
Youth activists from member organizations of the DPNSEE, HOPS from Macedonia and Re Generation from Serbia, had presentations in the side event organized by the Youth Organisations for Drug Action (YODA) and Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe in the first year that YODA was present with the ECOSOC status. Side event was focused on the topic related to “Protecting the rights of young people in the areas related to drugs and drug policy, under international regulations” with aim of highlighting the real difficulties young people face under current drug policies.
A good insight in the Commission meeting can be found at the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) blog.