RAPPORTEUR GROUP

Social and Health Questions

GR-SOC(2018)14-addrev

15 October 2018[1]

17th Ministerial Conference of the Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (Pompidou Group) (27 – 28 November 2018, Stavanger, Norway) – Preliminary Draft Declaration   Item to be considered by the GR-SOC at its meeting on 16 October 2018

 

 

Draft Declaration to be submitted for adoption at the 17^th Ministerial Conference of the Pompidou Group

The Ministers participating at the 17^th Ministerial Conference of the Pompidou Group in Stavanger, Norway, on 27 and 28 November 2018, make the following declaration:

The Pompidou Group is an important bridge to countries of the neighbourhood of Europe at large and beyond, thus proving its added value as an enlarged partial agreement of the Council of Europe.

We reaffirm our support to the Group which:

underlines human rights as a fundamental cornerstone in drug policy, in line with the Council of Europe’s core mission;

provides added value through innovation, implementation of operational solutions, pro-active approaches and cross-sectoral co-operation;

links research, conceptualisation and the implementation of drug policies;

contributes to high-lighting the choices of decision-makers in promoting effective and coherent responses to drug-related issues;

has proven its flexibility and ability to react timely and adequately to emerging challenges and changes;

plays an important role in the international drug policy sphere and promotes the interplay of European and international institutions involved therein;

acknowledges the importance of the role and participation of civil society in drug policy related democratic processes;

welcomed three new member States (Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015, Monaco in 2016 and Mexico in 2017), bringing the total number of member States to 39;

We congratulate the Pompidou Group under the Norwegian Presidency and Italian Vice-Presidency for the results achieved under its 2015-2018 Work Programme, and we endorse the documents adopted by the Permanent Correspondents of the Pompidou Group:

Statement on bringing human rights into drug policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;

Policy paper on government interaction with civil society on drug policy issues: principles, ways and means, opportunities and challenges;

Statement on costs and unintended consequences of drug control policies (pending adoption);

Statement on access to opioid agonist medicines for the treatment of opioid dependence syndrome;

We acknowledge the relevance and concrete results of Pompidou Group activities, both permanent and ad hoc, including the Executive Training on Drug Policy, the dialogue and co-operation among airport, police and customs authorities (the Airports Group), the International Precursor Network, regional platforms such as the Mediterranean Network (MedNET) and the SEE co-operation network, various work related to gender issues, as well as statements made at the UNGASS on drug policy issues in 2016, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and other efforts to increase the influence and visibility of the Pompidou Group;

We are concerned about:

the fact that the availability and use of drugs and related harms, including the number of drug related deaths, continues to be high, causing many deaths, despite the importance of efforts to tackle  the problem of drugs;

challenges from new communication and information technologies, new modes of distribution, as well as new psychoactive substances, significantly affecting demand and supply reduction measures in drug policy;

global challenges caused by war, conflict, terrorism and economic/financial instability;

the risk of discriminatory and stigmatising attitudes towards people with addictions as such attitudes can undermine risk and harm reduction, treatment, social re-integration and the potential for recovery;

We recall the obligations of States under the United Nations and the Council of Europe Conventions to protect fundamental rights and freedoms, in particular the right to life and human dignity, the right to protection of health, the prohibition of any type of discrimination as well as the right of children to be protected from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychoactive substances;

We welcome the provisions of the final document of the Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations that the world drug problem requires a united global response, combining policies on demand reduction, for prevention and health, and supply reduction, in the full respect of human rights. Consequently it would be important to change the descriptive title of the founding resolution of the Pompidou Group, which today reads ‘Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking’, to more adequately reflect today’s drug policy evolution, and subsequently to initiate a broader reflection on the Group’s mandate, operation and working methods;

We reaffirm:

our commitment to ensure that drug policies are fully respecting human rights, thus underlining the importance of the Council of Europe’s role in this field;

our intention to further pursue the consolidation of the bridging role of the Pompidou Group between European countries, their neighbourhood and beyond, in particular in the countries of the Southern Mediterranean rim and the countries in the South East and East of Europe;

our determination to provide added value and complementarity to the international efforts to address the world drug problem by co-operation and concerted action with other European and international organisations;

We encourage governments:

to further develop drug policy with a human rights, public health and science-based approach, including measures aimed at preventing risks and reducing harms associated with the use of psychoactive substances;

to actively work for the abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offences and to condemn extra judicial executions;

to contribute to and embrace neutral and non-stigmatising language;

to further develop a meaningful co-operation and dialogue with civil society actors, including representatives of people who use drugs;

to guarantee broad coverage, accessibility and quality of essential services for all, and to ensure access to and availability of controlled medicines for medical and scientific purposes whilst preventing their diversion;

to mainstream a gender perspective into the design and implementation of drug policies;

to highlight public health and the importance of prevention;

to further consolidate their efforts to effectively react to the emergence of new psychoactive substances, especially the threat caused by fentanyl;

to continue international co-operation on effective precursor control and effective prevention of precursor diversion;

to increase the effectiveness of international efforts to prevent trafficking of illicit drugs through enhanced co-operation between different sectors of law enforcement, including police, customs and border control agencies, as well as other relevant sectors, with full respect of human rights;

to continue promoting participation in networks, joint initiatives and professional training as a meaningful and practical form of international co-operation as demonstrated by Pompidou Group activities such as the Airports Group, the International Network on Precursor Control, MedNET, and the Executive Training on Drug Policy;

to implement the recommendations in the UNGASS outcome document;

to actively contribute to close collaboration between States and relevant regional and international organisations, as well as to a constructive dialogue with the numerous NGOs working in the area;

to contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 by promoting a global approach to drug policies;

We mandate the Pompidou Group to:

focus its activities around the principles of the work programme 2019–2022, which we adopted today, and on the programme's three thematic priorities (good governance, international drug policy development and new challenges); Hereunder:

secure the implementation of and respect for human rights in all aspects of drug policy;

support members States in their efforts to develop and implement drug policies based on human rights and public health in a co-ordinated and coherent way, ensuring an effective balance between demand and supply reduction, and to ensure access to controlled medication and services;

promote policies that take the importance of gender and age into account, and policies that address new challenges in drug policy;

continue capacity building towards the development, implementation and evaluation of effective and evidence-based drug policies;

further develop the involvement of civil society and promote active co-operation between the governmental and non-governmental sector;

facilitate debate for the yearly sessions of the CND and other relevant international and regional processes, like the Sustainable Development Goals;

We invite the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, as a first step, to change the wording of the title of Resolution (80) 2 to “The international co-operation platform of the Council of Europe on responses to the global drugs problem – Pompidou Group”;

We instruct our Permanent Correspondents to initiate a process aimed at reviewing the Group’s mandate, operation and working methods, with a view to the possible adoption of a revised Statutory Resolution by the Committee of Ministers on the occasion of the 50^th Anniversary of the Group’s foundation, to be celebrated in 2021. In this connection we welcome the decision of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly to launch a report on “Drug policy and human rights in Europe: a baseline study”, which may provide a useful input to this process;

We pledge our support for the 2019-2022 Work Programme on “Sustainable drug policies respective of human rights”. To ensure an effective implementation of the work programme, we commit to actively participate in the Pompidou Group’s activities and to make the best use of the Group’s products and results with a view to creating a significant impact on society.