Tag: Drug Policy

Potential for cooperation on justice and home affairs

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DPNSEE Board member Denis Dedajić and Executive Director Milutin Milošević visited the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), the successor of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, who focuses on promotion and enhancement of regional cooperation in South East Europe. The main tasks of the RCC are to represent the region, assist the SEECP, monitor regional activities, exert leadership in regional cooperation, provide a regional perspective in donor assistance – notably the EU’s Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (c) programme – and support increased involvement of civil society in regional activities. The RCC functions as a focal point for regional cooperation in SEE and its key role is to generate and coordinate developmental projects of a wider, regional character, to the benefit of each individual participant, and create an appropriate political climate susceptible to their implementation.

Justice and home affairs are one of the areas of cooperation in the framework of the RCC. Fighting serious and organised crime is one of the areas for which RCC Strategy and Work Programme 2014-2016 envisages assistance to the SEE governments in meeting the EU accession criteria through the regional cooperation.

DPNSEE representatives had a very interesting information sharing meeting with Mrs Ivana Goranić, the Expert on Governance for Growth working on justice issues on 18 August 2016. Several possibilities for cooperation related to the issue of drugs were identified, including exchange and partnership of police and justice structures. The RCC offers grants and DPNSEE will be interested to prepare a project proposal in 2017.

Issue of drug during the summer tourist season

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The Ministry of health of Montenegro hosted the Regional Workshop on Drug Supply and Demand
Reduction During the Summer Tourist Season, organised by the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument of the European Commission. The Workshop was held in Podgorica on 7 and 8 July 2016.

The aim of the Workshop was to strengthen capacities of Police and Anti-Drugs Services in the Western Balkans and Turkey on drug supply and demand reduction during the summer tourist season, especially at large events such as music festivals. A report from the EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) on travel and drug use in Europe notes that certain travel destinations across Europe have a reputation of having a wide availability of a range of drugs; these include party locations, electronic music festivals and the nightlife scene on certain Mediterranean islands. This is very interesting now, when the festival tourism is the fastest growing tourist branch, especially in the Southeast Europe.
Participating countries included Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey and theFormer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Guest speakers came from Belgium, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. From the Montenegrin side, all for most active NGOs participated, including DPNSEE member organisations 4Life and Juventas and Cazas and Preporod. The Executive Director of DPNSEE participated for one day, sharing experiences and establishing contacts with a variety of participants.

The Workshop was an interesting platform for sharing of best practices and exchanging of knowledge with Experts from EU Member States on effective tools for reducing drug supply and demand. The thing which left a specific impression was the completely opposite positions: restrictive one of state agents (policy, anti-drug services, prosecutors) and pro-active one of the non-governmental organisations. Also, it is a pity that representatives from big festivals were not invited to share their experiences (“Sundance” being prepared at the time of the workshop).

A good insight in the Montenegrin drug policy situation

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160701 Visit to Montenegro photo 3
Distribution of methadone in the Methadone centre Podgorica

Representatives of the Drug policy network South East Europe visited Montenegro from 28 June to 1 July 2016. The delegation included Denis Dedajić, member of the Board, Milutin Milošević, Executive Director and representatives of two local member organisations Tijana Žegura from Juventas and Saša Mijović from NGO 4 Life.

Purpose of the visit was to present DPNSEE to the Montenegrin society and build strong relationships with the authorities, institutions and services. Aims included establishing contacts and exploring possibilities for cooperation with authorities and various institutions, understanding Montenegrin model of functioning of structures for participation of civil society in decision making and identifying models for improvement, supporting member organisations in their work and contacts with authorities, institutions and services, issue of supporting (young) people on festivals and in clubbing and meetings with NGOs, especially potential new members of the Network.

The delegation held a large number of meetings including authorities and institutions: Minister for Labour and Social Wellfare, National Committee for Drugs, Public Health Institute, Sektor za suzbijanje krijumčarenja droga u Upravi policije (drug abuse prevention department in the Ministry of interior), KPZ Spuž (largest state prison), Special psychiatric hospital Dobrota, Metadonski program održavanja opijatskih zavisnika (methadone centre), Terapijska zajednica Kakaricka gora (therapeutic community), Kamp raseljenih lica sa Kosova na Koniku (Kosovo refugees centre). Besides our member organisations, good and constructive meetings were held with NGOs including Cazas, Preporod and Narcotics Anonymous.

The most positive impression from the visit is that most of the authorities and institution value very high the work of the NGOs and underline that they are the ones who have a direct contact with drug users which is an excellent channel for accessing them. The most challenging is that many actors in the field of drugs are working hard but that there is no efficient system that should coordinate their efforts in an effective way.

Featured Photo: Meeting with Mr. Boris Marić, Minister for Labour and Social Wellfare

Foundation of Drug Policy Network in South East Europe (DPNSEE)

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Thirteen non-governmental organizations of the SEE region founded the Umbrella Organization “Drug Policy Network in South East Europe”. The organization acquired legal status by registering in the register of the competent authority (Business Registers Agency) in Belgrade. The organization is called in English “Drug Policy Network South East Europe” with the abbreviation DPNSEE. The registration of the network as a legal entity was one of the main objectives of the project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe”. Founding members of the DPNSEE are 13 organizations from SEE countries: Aktion Plus (Albania), Margina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Viktorija (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Healthy Options Skopje (HOPS), (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Diogenis ( Greece), Positive Voice (Greece), Center for Life (Greece), NGO 4life (Montenegro), Juventas (Montenegro), RHRN (Romania), ALIAT (Romania), Prevent (Serbia) and SEEA.NET (Slovenia).

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The DPNSEE will be responsible for coordinating the Network. The Board of the organization consists of 7 members elected by the general meeting of the members which is the Network’s highest decision-making body. The founding General Assembly elected the first Board and approved the action plan for 2016.

 

Priorities for 2016 are:

1.     Strengthening the organizational structure and governance of the Network

2.     The organization of the office and staff recruitment

3.     The tightening of links with the state authorities, institutions and agencies responsible for implementing the drug policy in SE Europe countries and

4.     The implementation of initiatives and actions in specific priority areas,  such as:

a)     Harm reduction and treatment programs

b)     Drug law reform in collaboration with the scientific community

c)     Developments in drug policy in the EU and internationally and the involvement of NGOs in decision making

d)     Capacity building through training opportunities for members of the Network

e)     Networking through the media, communication with the press and the DPNSEE website

 

 

 

Meeting of the Drug Policy Network in SEE in Novi-Sad 6-8 July 2015

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From 6 to 8 July, representatives of the organizations, that are members of the informal Drug Policy Network in South East Europe met in Novi Sad (Serbia) to discuss about establishing an umbrella organization with a legal status, building on the informally established Drug Policy Network.

The meeting started with a presentation by Ilina Nesik, representative of the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN) informing the meeting about the experience of the BCSDN in its development since 2001. The Balkan Civil Society Development network is a regional sectoral network consisting of 15 member organizations, from 10 different countries of the Balkan region. It started, in the first phase, as a 3-year pilot programme (2001-2003) functioned in the second phase (2003-2008) as an informal Network and became a formalized network in the third phase (2008-2011). Ilina Nesik referred to the vision and mission of the organization, the strategic goals, the membership (eligibility criteria and the procedure to become a member) as well as the initiatives/activities of the organization. Special reference was made to the monitoring Matrix, a unique tool for monitoring the enabling environment for civil society development. During the discussion that followed the presentation, several questions have been raised about the membership especially concerning the distinction between consultative and member status, the governance, management and organization structure and the independent status of the organization.

This presentation has been followed by an introduction by Thanasis Apostolou, who outlined the development of Drug Policy Network in South East Europe and presented the project to create the umbrella organization with a legal status. Consequently, the meeting decided about the name of the new organization, which remained Drug Policy Network in South East Europe. The meeting decided to establish an independent organization, not linked to one of the existing Network’s organizations. The location of the umbrella organization will be the city of Skopje. The meeting decided to meet again on 31 of August to 3 September in Belgrade. Every organization of the Network will be represented in Belgrade by one person. The Belgrade meeting will be the constituent assembly of the new umbrella organization.

“Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy”: New perspectives for the Drug Policy Network in South East Europe

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Since 2010 the Drug Policy Network in South East Europe has functioned with a minimum of financial resources. The award of a grant from the European Commission for 2015, increases the potential for more systematic and adequate advocacy and more structured cooperation between NGOs. The project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe” is financially supported by the European Commission, DG Enlargement, Regional Cooperation and programmes and co-financed by the Open Society Foundations.

The objectives of the project are:
a. to promote drug policies and drug legislation based on a public health and human rights approach
b. to improve contacts with relevant national and regional authorities in the field of drugs and follow closely the European Union and international drug policy developments. More specific: a. to strengthen cooperation of the NGOs working in the field of drugs, by the creation of a legal umbrella organisation b. to ensure the cohesion of the Drug Policy Network in SEE and undertake joint actions
c. to involve youth and drug users organisations in drug policy and d. To improve the capacity of local NGOs in drug policy issues.

The organisations that initiated this project and are responsible for its implementation are: the partners Aksion Plus (Albania), Margina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), NGO 4life (Montenegro), Prevent (Serbia) and Diogenis as lead organisation (Greece). The project started its activities in January 2015 and will organise until the end of the year several activities in the countries of the Western Balkans.

The main priorities of the first year of the project will be the realisation of a legal umbrella organisation, harm reduction advocacy and capacity building of local NGOs, Drug Law reform initiatives and NGO involvement in drug policy developments in the European Union and worldwide.

Public meetings will be organised in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia on drug strategy and drug legislation in co-operation with universities and the relevant local authorities in these countries. In September 2015 a regional conference will be held about the upcoming United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. (April 2016). There will be several contacts with the authorities responsible for drug policy in the countries of the region. The Drug policy Network will try to initiate a meaningful dialogue with the countries in the Western Balkans and follow the political dialogue between them and the European Commission in the framework of the “Action Plan on drugs between the EU and the candidate countries in the Western Balkans and Turkey”.

We hope that during this year we will create the conditions for a coordinated and well-structured Network, make efforts for a good relationship with the authorities and relevant institutions in the field of drugs, react on developments in drug policy at the national, European and international level, enhance policy dialogue and support national and regional partnerships and Networks. The quarterly newsletter will keep interested organisations, institutions and individuals updated on drug policy developments along with news in the website and social media of the network. We will appreciate your feedback on this first issue of the newsletter and hope to improve it in the coming period.

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