Report from the CND in Vienna

Linda Nilsson reporting from CND in Vienna

The CND meeting in Vienna is in full action and a lot of things are happening at the same time. One of the most exciting things is maybe the informal meeting with key persons within the UN system, arranged by the Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs. Today, the Executive Director of UNODC, Yuri Fedotov, met with civil society organizations to answer questions and to get input from the NGOs.

The WFAD raised the issues about protection of the rights of the child and the importance to have a child-centered policy.

“The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, CRC, specifies in its article 33 the rights of the child to be protected from illicit use of drugs, the only place in all human rights conventions where illicit drug use is mentioned.

When UNODC performs its field work, is there any focus on the aspects of the rights of the child? Is there any assessment made locally about the situation for children, if they are involved in the drugs trade or production, if the problem of illicit use among children can be addressed in an effective matter? Will UNODC cooperate with UNICEF about this in order to develop efficient methods of field work?”

Yuri Fedotov stressed the need to protect the children form negative impact of illicit drugs. This should always be in our focus. He also mentioned the International standards on Drug Use Prevention as one tool that UNODC is working to protect children. Director Fedotov also said that he was looking forward to continue to work with WFAD
on the protection of the rights of the child.

Director Fedotov was also very clear on his view on legalization. First he stressed that it is the Member States that have decided about the conventions and it is only the Member States that can change the conventions. UNODC’s job is to follow the Conventions. He said that legalization will not make the criminal market disappear. It would instead mean that we would have two markets, one legal and one illegal. The illegal market would still be selling in schools and to our children. The result would be that the prices of drugs would go down, availability would increase, as would use. And drugs would continue to kill people, no matter their legal status.

The Director stressed the importance of NGOs in his closing remarks and said that he is looking forward to a continued debate around drug issues.