H.E. Ambassador Dominika Krois from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Poland to the UNODC opened the 64th Meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) today in Vienna. In the next five days, the CND will consider and adopt a range of decisions and resolutions in a hybrid format (online/offline).
At the Opening of the General Debate, the CND64 adopted joint statement on the impact of COVID-19 on addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres underlined that “COVID-19 crisis has shown us how much the world needs solidarity, shared responsibility and international cooperation to improve health coverage, protect our societies and recover better”.
The Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) has drafted a Guide for NGOs participating in the CND, available here>>>. VNGOC has also compiled a list of recommendations aimed at protecting the role of civil society engagement in the CND, available here>>>.
To follow the session, you can use the CND Blog>>> which provides near real-time updates on the plenary session, Committee of the Whole and selected side events. The CND Blog is a project of the International Drug Policy Consortium, in collaboration with NGO partners, which aims to ensure transparency and provide live records of the discussions taking place at the meeting. The CND Blog also covered UNGASS negotiations and proceedings.
You can also follow the CND webcast at YouTube following this link>>>. There, the formal sessions of the meeting will be streamed.