Rome Consensus 2.0 Summit

The Summit of the Rome Consensus 2.0 was held on 2 – 5 May 2023 in Villa Maraini, in Rome. It was a strategic meeting between different realities that deal with drug issues along with the large humanitarian family of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, giving a proof that we can work together on the same side for the good of the most vulnerables

The Summit brought together a task force of humanitarian practitioners, activists and experts leading on drug policy, treatment, diversion and deflection from 29 countries. More than 100 experts from all around the world enriched the debate and filled the formal and informal discussion with new ideas and common goals.

The event started with the presentation of the leading role of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in responding to humanitarian emergencies and disasters with its wide network of millions of volunteers in 191 countries.  The Partnership Anniversary has been a valuable opportunity to meet among 15 Red Cross/Red Crescent National Societies who have interest in tackling drug problems and  collaborated in the last 10 years with the Partnership, and discuss internally and with CSOs how to build connection, exchange of know and how and increase the effectiveness of the RC2.0 statement as a common tool and ground to promote and disseminate humanitarian drug policy side by side, taking in consideration the power of the emblem as an asset to reach the most vulnerable of the society.

The Interior Minister of Italy, Matteo Piantedosi, and the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Giorgio Silli, joined the event and gave supporting words on humanitarian drug policy, awareness and harm reduction as powerful tools to create the opportunity for change from a repressive approach to a health-centered one.

A final declaration was prepared to summarize what has been discussed and committed during the event. It will serve as a common ground to relaunch the initiative in the upcoming months.

Participants were able to experience field visits along with the Villa Maraini Foundation, the historical Italian Red Cross Rehabilitation center founded in 1976 by Massimo Barra, among the first in the world to put in practice humanitarian and evidence-based solutions to drug problems. Participants had the chance to personally experience the therapeutic environment where everyday Villa Maraini offers a comprehensive path of services to more than 600 clients from the street to the community, in a continuum of care, in order to adapt the therapy to the person, according to the motivation, needs and adherence. Participants personally met clients and heard witness from them and the social workers (all former drug users – the core of the VM staff), and were able to deepen the whole access to treatment strategy of Villa Martaini, from the very low-threshold to the high threshold.

DPNSEE Executive Director Milutin Milošević actively participated at the Summit and was honoured to speak at the opening session.

A quiet CND

The 66th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) was held between 13th and 17th March in hybrid format with much broader in-person participation than in the past two years. Chaired by the Colombian Ambassador Miguel Camino Ruiz Blanco, it was also the first ever CND session that was recorded on UN Web TV. Positively, a wide number of civil society organisations attended, with 135 NGOs registered, and more than 570 NGO participants following the debates both online and in person.

In a way, the CND was quiet and without many sparkles, but some statements indicate that the next one will be very intense.

As in previous years, the session was marked by ongoing clashes between more progressive member states, and those that continue to promote a war on drugs approach, resulting in new tensions and contradictions hampering the so-called ‘Vienna consensus’. This was clearly felt during the fractious negotiations of the 5 draft resolutions tabled for this CND session.

For the first time in recent history, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addressed the CND, which is an important historical development in itself. Recognising that ‘if drugs destroy lives, the same can also be true of drug policies’, Mr. Türk called for ‘transformative change’ in the global approach to drugs.

The call for change was explicitly echoed by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health. After restating the known fact that criminalisation aggravates stigma and discrimination against people who use drugs, the Special Rapporteur urged States to ‘End prohibition, decriminalize drug use or the possession, purchase, or cultivation of drugs for personal use and other related activities; and introduce appropriate regulations’. Other clear and open challenges to the global drug control regime were voiced by Member States.

But if the 66th CND session witnessed some open challenges to the UN drug control regime, the status quo stroke back. At least 14 countries took the floor to express concern over the legal regulation of cannabis and the resulting contravention of the UN drug conventions. In contrast with

It was another record-breaking year for side events at this year’s CND, with 155 taking place in total, up 21 from last year. In contrast to last year, where side events remained entirely online, the 66th session saw the majority of its side events take place in-person or in a hybrid setting. Only 20 side events took place solely in an ‘online setting’, which meant that in-person attendance for events was extremely high, including from UN diplomats.

DPNSEE President Nebojša Djurasović, Board Member Marios Atzemis, Executive Director Milutin Milošević and several other member organisations’ representatives participated in the event. For the first time, DPNSSE participated in the meeting in full capacity as an ECOSOC-accredited NGO.

In addition to very useful meetings with UNODC representatives, especially Ms. Fariba Soltani and Gorica Popović (including sharing about the implementation of the project for refugees from Ukraine) and colleagues from the Rome Consensus 2.0 (Marios spoke at their side event “A global call for deflection: as the new policy on policing and drugs”), Milutin participated in events organised by the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs.

 

Police and Drug Treatment Together

The Rome Consensus 2.0, together with Chicago Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities TASC. and The Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative PTACC, organise the side event “Police and Drug Treatment Together: the Global Emergence of Deflection as a Humanitarian Crime Reduction Approach to Drugs” during the 65th UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The event is designed to bring together CSOs, professionals, leaders and public authorities from across the world to explore ways to effectively combine humanitarian attitude in health, criminal justice, prevention and community responses to addiction problems. The aim of the event is to focus and share on a new emerging health-based practice called “Deflection”, which sits at the nexus of policing, drug treatment, housing, services, recovery, and local community.

Deflection leverages the hundreds of millions of contacts that police and law enforcement have globally with people who use drugs for personal use but might otherwise 1) be arrested or 2) not be arrested without any action taken to address their personal drug use that causes, often repeatedly, contact with police and law enforcement. Yet, regardless of which of the two options is applicable, the person would do better from engagement in community-based drug treatment, housing, services, and recovery at that very point-in-time encounter. In other words, Deflection is an early, preventative, “upstream” approach that seeks to prevent possible future criminal conduct, death, or unrelenting drug use by addressing the problems associated with drug use for the person, their family and children, and for the community itself.

The side event will be held on March 14th at 1:10 PM (CET). It is co-sponsored by:

  • Red Cross and Red Crescent Partnership on Substance Abuse IFRC, The Villa Maraini Foundation, Italian Red Cross (Italy)
  • Pompidou Group – Council of Europe
  • Knowmad Institut (El Salvador/Germany)
  • Section Commander for Substance Abuse Program of SAPS South Africa Police Services (South Africa).
  • MENAHRA Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (Lebanon)
  • DPNSEE – Drug Policy Network of South East Europe, HOPS – Healthy Options Project Skopje (North Macedonia)

Our colleague Nataša Boškova, Legal adviser at HOPS and Coalition “Margini”, will present the model of cooperation with the police and the development of the module for training on ethical conduct of the police toward people who use drugs.

Register here to join the event on Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G8us9PT9R8GOJsbIRKX7xA

Rome Consensus 2.0 is a Humanitarian Drug Policy alliance, a call from professionals to governments to make urgent moves towards health and human rights based approaches. The Humanitarian Drug Policy’s primary objective is to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity by fighting social, legal and cultural criminalization of people who use drugs.

 

Rome Consensus for Humanitarian Drug Policy

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Partnership on Substance Abuse, co-sponsored by the Government of Italy, UNODC, WHO, in cooperation with the Levenson Foundation, the C4 Recovery Foundation, PTACC and the Villa Maraini Foundation, has launched the Manifesto “Rome Consensus 2.0 towards a humanitarian drug policy” at the 63a CND at UNODC in Vienna.

The Manifesto wants to promote universal access to treatment and care, as well as alternative measures to criminal justice for people who use drugs. The aim is to address the drug problems at all levels by giving emphasis to a humane attitude in support of people with drug disorders. The primary objective of humanitarian aid and approach is to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity.

The Rome Consensus 2.0 is available following this link>>>

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