Chair: Welcome. Adoption of agenda. Commission elected Belgium as 2nd Vice Chair and Chile as 3rd Vice Chair. The Eastern European states nominated Poland for 1st Vice Chair and African Group nominated Nigeria as Rapporteur. On 2nd March, we will elect the officials. 62nd CND decided to include a general debate in the agenda in the 63rd session as practice: cabinet rank ministerial representatives will take the floor, followed by other reps – speakers’ list is established on the first come, first serve basis. 10 – 22 February is the nomination period for Member States. Australia, Vice Chair on Arbitrary Detention will also address the general debate. Youth forum and Scientific Forum will also be held on the margins of CND who will be reporting back to the Commission during the plenary: Scientific Forum on Tuesday 2pm, Youth Forum on Wednesday 3pm. Draft resolutions and COW will start convening in the afternoon of Monday, they will suspend their considerations during the voting on Wednesday. We have 5 draft resolutions and they are posted internally on our website. They will be made public once they are all translated. High Level event during the lunch break on 2nd of March, together with CCPCJ we will organize a commemoration of the 4th world conference on women and the adoption of the Beijing convention. The official program of the side events and exhibitions will be published one week before the start of the session. Documentation and etc will only be issued electronically and will be made available on all official languages on the website. No hard copies of pre-session documents will be issued. In-session documents will be printed. The Secretariat shared that Sunday registration is unlikely but passes will be available on Friday.
On the proposed scheduling recommendations: At the 62nd session the commission had in front the recommendations and CND decided to postpone decision to provide more time to Member States for considerations. During the intersessionals, delegations addressed their questions with WHO experts, INCB and UNODC officials were also present to provide insights within their mandates. We decided to take decisions at the 63rd session – since then an informal consultation process is underway to develop a join understanding on the way forward. With regard to voting options and the possibility of simultaneous voting, the office of the legal affairs has responded in writing that as been disseminated among the Member States. The WHO recommendations from the 42nd ECDD meeting (October 2019) advise to add two fentanyl analogues to ‘71 convention, synthetics, benzodiazepines and cannabis analogues to be scheduled within 71’ convention. The Secretariat produced a brochure .
Iran: The scheduling exercise on Wednesday morning while COW is suspended; I am concerned about time, is it manageable to vote on 13 substances? We don’t know about the outcome of the cannabis informals yet.
Chair: We tried to keep all agenda items in mind and space time so action can be appropriately taken.
Secretariat: This practice is custom.
Chair: Contribution to the work of ECOSOC. The meeting of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2020 convened under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council, will be held from Tuesday, 7 July, to Thursday, 16 July 2020, including the three-day ministerial meeting of the forum from Tuesday, 14 July, to Thursday, 16 July 2020. The theme will be “Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realising the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development “. Secretariat will prepare CND’s report to be approved by the regional groups and the Commission. Draft provisional agenda for the 64th session needs to be agreed upon during CND and has been shared on 13th February. Chairs of Regional Groups are asked to submit comments. Are there any other issues to be raised?
Afghanistan: We can not tackle the world drug problem if we close our eyes to the root of the problem. If you are not honest and genuinely cooperative in sharing information, if you are not committed to shared responsibilities… We initiated several undertakings; however, we need the continued support of the international community. I thank all our partners and allies.
Chair: At the end of the day, with your support, we will ensure the action the commission takes on these complex issues is an informed action and conveys a constructive solid message. With this, we exhausted our agenda. Anyone wishing to take the floor?
United States: Does the Secretariat know when the glossary will be available of the ARQ?
Secretariat: After this meeting, we will consult the Research Branch and make sure this documentation is made available as soon as possible.
Russia: [Untranslated request in Russian regarding document availability]
Secretariat: Within the week.
Chair: Thank you. This is it for today. Meeting adjourned.