CND Chair. The CND will take place from 13th to 17th March. The pre-session consultations will be held on 10th March as you are all aware, this will be a special session as we are celebrating the 60th anniversary. The provisional agenda was approved by ECOSOC. The CND decided to subsume agenda item 4 with agenda item 6 – follow up to the UNGASS on drugs, under which member states will discuss the operational operations of the outcome document and implementation. This will be entitled: follow up to the UNGASS including the 7 thematic areas of the outcome document. The documentation for the 60th session will be posted on the CND website as it becomes available.

Regarding the opening of the special session: we intend to build on how it has been done previously instead of starting big negotiations. These are our suggestions, bearing in mind we will probably host high ranking officials. I want to remind you that, in line with past practices, the CND decided as a matter of courtesy to provide high level representatives with the opportunity to address the CND at the opening, at 9:30 in the morning on the first day to allow more time for speakers to address the commission. This will be put to the CND for approval.

In line with what was done in 2014, we will have a ceremonial opening with representation with youth, science and civil society. It will be appreciated if we can invite some former chairs of the CND to say a few words in the opening of the session. Our work is an process and there have been many chairs that did important work, so it would be good to look back on previous work. Are there objections?

Ecuador. Thank you for the proposal, but could you develop the proposal of inviting previous chairs?

CND Chair. The proposal is for them to say a few words at the opening to reflect on years of work. They could of course stay on after but as observers. Chairs of the regional groups should also inform me whether they want to deliver a statement and who will do so. I also want to know as soon as possible which high level ranking officials will be attending. This will be a determining factor for the establishment of the agenda. We will need to use our time efficiently in March and we will all need to adhere to the time allocated – 10 minutes for regional groups, and 5 minutes for all other speakers. I will strictly apply those time limits. We went through this during the bureau meeting in December. I ask that this is communicated to capitals and those writing the speeches. This has to be fair for all and has already been accepted in the bureau. Is there approval there? It seems so. It also avoid extending the CND late in the evening.

Let us now turn to draft resolutions and decisions. Deadline for submission is Monday 13th February at noon. So far no draft has been received. To make efficient use of our time in the CND, I encourage all delegations to start discussions on draft resolutions as soon as possible. Drafts should be submitted to the secretariat with timelines, identification of resources available and other relevant information. I now open the floor on any other draft proposals that may be tabled.

UK. I reiterate our plans to table a resolution on NPS.

Russia. We are still working on interagency agreements, but we cannot exclude the fact that we may submit a draft resolution on the training of law enforcement officers who work with drugs, ‘enhancing law enforcement through training’.

United States. We will also propose a resolution on encouraging further collaboration among UN agencies in implementing the UNGASS outcome document.

CND Chair. The English edited text of draft resolutions will be posted on the website and made available on the CND website once they become available in all 6 UN languages. I remind sponsors that edits should be made on the final edited version – they should get the final Word document to the CND Secretariat and edits should be in tracked changes.

Let me now turn to the work of the Committee of the Whole (CoW). It will start with the consideration of draft resolutions at 3pm on Monday 13th March. I look forward to working with the Mexican Ambassador in the CoW.

Let me now turn to the operational segment. The first item on the agenda is item 3 entitled ‘policy directives to the drug programme of the UNODC and strengthening of the drug programme and the role of CND including admin, budgetary and strategic management questions’. The rest is the normative segment with agenda 5 of the implementation of the 2009 political declaration. Agenda item 8, on scheduling of substances – the CND will consider the implementation of the UN drug control treaties. In particular under item 8b, changes in the scope of substances, the CND will consider two substances put forth by the WHO in schedule I of the 1961 Convention, and 8 substances in schedule II of the 1971 Convention. The US government in a letter to the Secretary General requested the inclusion of 2 precursors: NPP and ANPP in the tables of the 1988 Convention. That request was shared with governments and the INCB by which governments were invited to provide comments and all supplementary information to establish an assessment of the CND to reach a decision. Recommendations will then be transmitted. Action by the CND on the scope of substances will take place as follows; the CND will consider recommendations one by one, during which time we will suspend the work of the CoW.

Under agenda item 9, we will consider the CND subsidiary bodies. Under agenda 10, we will consider contributions to the 2030 agenda for sustainable development – this will be a standing item on its agenda in response to UNGA resolution from last year to address the implementation of the 2030 agenda within each Commission of ECOSOC. Member states also decided on the annual themes of the high level political forums for the next three years. For this year, it will be on eradicating poverty and ensuring prosperity in a changing world. All 17 SDGs will be examined from the perspective of that theme. In 2017, goals 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 14 will be reviewed in depth along with goal 17 on partnerships which will be examined every year. I want to mention that the CND has a dedicated website along with the CCPCJ on the 2030 agenda, which holds contributions and relevant actions by the Commissions on the implementation of the 2030 agenda. The CND has accepted the invitation by the ECOSOC President to send substantive inputs on the high level political forum on sustainable development, particularly for the SDGs and respective targets that are most relevant to our mandate bearing in mind the 2017 thematic focus. The CND Secretariat is preparing a draft contribution which will be shared to the extended bureau for review.

I am also going to report back to you on the meeting in New York last week. There were two sets of meetings. The first was with the ECOSOC bureau and chairs of the ECOSOC subsidiary bodies. The focus was on delivering SDGs through coordinated contributions. As mentioned earlier, the collaboration we already have with the CSW and the Statistics Committee was encouraged and all subsidiary bodies were encouraged to work together to optimise the delivery of the 2030 agenda. It was also for me an opportunity to inform NY of the work of the CND. We were encouraged to keep contact between the subsidiary bodies to inform them more on what we were doing. Looking at other subsidiary bodies, there are other relevant themes including development bodies, social issues and public administration in particular as relates to the SDG 16. Then it was decided that the Secretariat in NY would develop more common template for reporting from subsidiary bodies and we will be notified much earlier on meetings taking place between ECOSOC and the subsidiary bodies which will give us a better planning horizon. They will also develop a common website to help us coordinate activities better and promote system cohesion and avoid duplication.

Now I am turning to the second meeting. The topic was advancing implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development through effective policy integration. The debate here was of a very overarching nature looking at how we work to reach the SDGs, financing for the development agenda, as well as more concrete discussions on how to unify statistics and common tools, how to develop indicators to move forward. There was a strong focus on cooperation with NGOs as well as a strong focus on goal 17 on developing partnerships. The latter was seen in the light of mobilising additional international organisations and foundations for resources. Other conversations mirrored some of the conversations we’ve had here at CND that hinder the SDGs including financial flows, cybercrime, transnational organised crime, counter-terrorism, etc. We look at our work in a cross-cutting manner.

Finally, I met with the head of the transnational team to inform her of the work being done in Vienna and remind her of the letter sent by the Chair and Fedotov to visit Vienna for the 60th Session of the CND. The facilitator is also working on that, we have no reply yet but are making best efforts to that effect. This concludes my information to you on these meetings in New York. Are there any questions or comments?

Spain. Regarding the organisation of the CND, could I ask a question? For logistical reasons it would be useful to know when the voting of substances to be schedule will be taking place.

CND Secretariat. We are in the process of finalising the provisional annotated agenda and programme of work, and will make sure that we try to have the voting happening either at the beginning of the day or immediately after lunchtime on the Thursday. We will provide the information as soon as we can. We will allow the delegations to attend the plenary for sure.