We want to encourage laboratories to participate in these schemes. We stress the importance of this UNODC programme. Participating laboratories can improve their performance in a truly global basis. The participation increased significantly, but we are concerned about the low participation in some areas of the world: Africa, Latin America and Asia. We appreciate UNODC’s work to provide universally implemented standards. UNODC provides certification on participation of labs.

Many countries cannot obtain substances for their analytical work, and are sometimes unable to obtain import certification for scientific purposes, which needs to be improved. We would like to encourage UNODC/INCB to help member states to facilitate access of laboratories to controlled substances. Monitoring should be conducted to improve the quality of work of participatory laboratories.

We call on the international community to recommend the best way to support UNODC on resources and expertise to provide quality assurance for states with limited capacity. The quality of results of these labs is primordial for the criminal justice system. We express our full support to UNODC quality assurance work.