The 50^th Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), held in Vienna from 12-16 March 2007 was the last such event before the watershed year of 2008, when the international community will review progress against the objectives set at the General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), held in New York in 1998. The key decision that had to be taken at the 2007 CND was the timing and procedure for the UNGASS review.

A draft resolution tabled by Canada (L.14) was negotiated and adopted that agrees to maintain the March 2008 CND meeting as the moment to present the UNODC assessment report and to devote the thematic debate next year to discuss it, "underscoring the value of objective, scientific, balanced and transparent assessment." [1] Following the March 2008 CND, a period of global reflection will start, leading to a high-level segment at the 2009 CND to draw conclusions for the future. The basic idea has thus been approved to separate time-wise the 2008 assessment report from the 2009 moment to adapt new strategies for the future, thereby preventing that documents guiding future steps are elaborated simultaneously with the UNODC assessment report without due time for reflection.

The 2008 assessment report will furthermore be enriched by inputs from expert consultations. A 40-strong expert group met for the first time in February this year – with financial support from the European Commission – as the result of an EU-sponsored resolution at the 2006 CND aiming to involve other specialized UN agencies and regional organisations in the UNGASS evaluation process.[2] The group – operating under the supervision of the UNGASS Coordination Group established within UNODC – is supposed to complement information from the Biennial Reports Questionnaire (BRQ) with additional relevant data sources and to provide recommendations on the methodology for the UNGASS 10-year assessment, enhancing the analytical work done by UNODC. It is still unclear how their recommendations will be reflected in the final UNODC assessment report.

The Canadian draft resolution reflected the outcomes of prior informal consultations within the 'Group of Friends' of the CND Presidency. The text refers back to the previous resolutions on the expert consultations, and on the importance of the role of civil society in the UNGASS review process.[3] It does not detail how preparations for the 2009 highlevel segment will be undertaken, apart from saying that a period of reflection should start at the 51st CND session next year and that the 2009 segment will be open to all UN Member States. While discussing the draft, however, several delegates drew the parallel with the 2003 mid-term review which was preceded by so-called 'PrepCom' meetings and mentioned that similar arrangements and further details need to be agreed upon next year.

Several countries, anxious that an evidence-based and objective evaluation might identify shortcomings in the current drug control framework and open up a Pandora’s box of better-to-be-avoided questions and proposals for change, tried to reduce the involvement of outside experts and civil society in the process and to downplay the relevance of the global reflection and the high-level character of the 2009 event. Th ere was even an – unsuccessful – attempt to include an operational paragraph that reads like a 'pre-emptive strike' against any possible critical outcomes of the assessment and reflection: “Calls upon Member States to prepare a political declaration reaffirming the commitments made in the UN Conventions and the UNGASS Declaration, noting the progress achieved." In the final plenary session, the US delegation made a statement underscoring their view that the assessment should lead to reaffirmation and strengthening of the existing drug control system. Fortunately, they did not obtain sufficient support for their position to insert any such language in the resolution.

1 E/CN.7/2007/L.14/Rev.1, Measures to meet the goal of establishing by 2009 the progress achieved in implementing the declarations and measures adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Vienna, 15 March 2007.

2 See: IDPC, The UNGASS Evaluation Process Evaluated, Blickman, T. and Evaluated Bewley-Taylor, D., Briefing Paper Nr. 1, June 2006.

3 E/CN.7/2006/10, Resolution 49/1, Collection and use of complementary drug-related data and expertise to support the global assessment by Member States of the implementation of the declarations and measures adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session; and Resolution 49/2, Recognizing the contribution of civil society in global efforts to address the drug problem in the context of reporting on the goals and targets for 2008 set by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session.

The text of the resolutions are available in the Consolidated Report of regular and reconvened 50th session CND

Taken from: Report of the 2007 Commission on Narcotic Drugs, International Drug Policy Consortium Briefing Nr. 5, March 2007