Item 3. Policy directives to the drug programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and strengthening the drug programme and the role of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs as its governing body, including administrative, budgetary and strategic management questions:

(a) Work of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and policy directives; 

(b) Role of the Commission as the governing body of the drug programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; 

(i)  Strengthening the drug programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; 

(ii)  Administrative, budgetary and strategic management questions;

(c) Staff composition of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other related matters.

Chair: Delegations may address sub-items together as they are closely linked

GRULAC (The Latin American and Caribbean Group): Reports on the budget indicates recent growth in volume & scope. We would like to encourage states to set contributions for general purpose funds for flexibility in the finance system. We regret the budget for GRULAC is reduced, and assistance to our region is hindered due to shortage of funds, and we stress the importance of technical assistance in our region. Any multilateral policies need to be applied globally. And we would ask for efforts to be redoubled for our region and staff in the region particularly in terms of gender equality.

United States: The US welcomes the report on UNOC activities, providing an overview of activities. In 2016 the US provided $77millin to UNODC for technical assistant and other activities, and we remain vigilant for other streams of funding. We have introduced a resolution to encourage integration. The US supports a culture of monitoring and evaluation and encourage this culture in the future. We support continuint efforts for gender mainstreaming in UNODC staff.

Tanzania: Committed to 3 conventions including concerns for health and welfare of human kind particularly among children. We were taught how to follow the drug money and has enlightened our law enforcement. We destroyed 300 hectares of cannabis, seized, heroin, cocaine, jailed dealers, and the crackdown is going on as we speak. We are educating in schools on the dangers of drug. Death rates of females is higher among HIV infected. 70% HIV rate among injecting drug users. Harm reduction measures are underway to combat this epidemic. Those who have recovered work with recovering users to offer support through peer-led NGOs.

Japan: Appreciate UNODC expertise, and much progress as been made since 2009. The world drug problme is still a serious threat to society and health across the globe. Japan contrived $13mln last year. We thank you for timely updates. UNODC must continue transparency and evaluation to provide financial stability.

Thailand: We would like to encourage UNODC’s active role in providing support in our regional area, particularly in capacity building, support and information sharing. Thailand realises that collaboration is crucial. Together with the other 6 parties of the Memorandum of Drug Control, Thailand has worked tirelessly to counter the world drug problem. We promote joint cooperation within the sub-region in order to tackle the production and smuggling of drugs. In this connection, Thailand would like to call attention from international community to contribute to work of sub-region to support strong determination. Thailand would like to support unwavering efforts of CND, the key policy making body. We would like to encourage UN to allocate more money to UNODC, particularly to the South-East Asian region where drug trafficking has such a negative effect. This is in line with UNGASS outcome document in pursuing a society free of drug abuse.

Brazil: The current financial situation of UNODC is reason for concern. This has implications to all areas of office’s work. Having read report from Executive Director on staff composition of UNODC last December, it is clear that though there is improvement in gender representation, there is not enough proportional representation based on the region. We need to improve the geographical distribution of staff. Developing countries have qualified professionals who can greatly contribute. The efforts of office should be executed be a representative group. We will continue to do our part to improve situation by widely publicising vacancy announcements we receive. We appreciate work of CND and UNODC. We reiterate commitment of Brazilian government to work of UNODC.

Association Proyecto Hombre: The present statement brings to light within the 60th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs a recent document named the Declaration of Mallorca that has been adopted by the representatives of the international and regional federations of Therapeutic Communities and of non-profit organizations from 26 countries during the World Conference of Therapeutic Communities. This event took place in the Spanish city of Mallorca the 3rd of December of 2016 organized by the Association Proyecto Hombre.

The Association Proyecto Hombre is an ECOSOC registered NGO since 2007 that unites 27 non-governmental organizations in Spain for drug prevention, rehabilitation and social reintegration. Founded in 1984, the Association Proyecto Hombre has supported more than 350.000 addicted people and their families. The Declaration of Mallorca pursues to contribute to the decisive work of the Commission and the implementation of the UNGASS Outcome Document. The Therapeutic Communities remain indefatigable in their task to significantly reduce the use of illicit drugs through effective drug prevention, primary care, affordable non-discriminatory treatment, recovery and social re-integration of drug-dependent populations, working in collaboration with national, regional and international governments, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Health Organization, civil society, professional bodies and private sector, involving also recovering drug users.
The comments below summarize the essential outcomes of the Declaration of Mallorca:

(a) Therapeutic Communities are committed to the most fragile populations. Our action is fully oriented to give response to those who suffer from their addictions, as well as their families and social environment, by a non-profit, long-term community-based treatment, mutual aid and professional guidance, and in accordance with the standards on the treatment of drug use disorders developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Health Organization.

(b) Therapeutic Communities are also utterly committed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. We welcome and support the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

(c) Therapeutic Communities support a wide range of addiction profiles, with an increasing attention to specific vulnerable groups such as women, children, the homeless, people with HIV or Hepatitis C, co-occurring disorders, offenders and others. The interventions shall be adapted to the participants’ needs and their cultural, economic, social and religious diversity.

(d) We acknowledge the effectiveness of the essential elements of the

Therapeutic Communities as well as the broad range of adapted methodologies and modified community-based programmes.

(e) Therapeutic Communities stress the fight against stigmatization of the addicted population.

(f) Much progress has been made in introducing the gender perspective into the treatment of addictions. Nonetheless, organizations are invited to reinforce these achievements as a priority.

(g) Families and other social networks become key factors during the rehabilitation treatment and we should encourage them to get engaged.

(h) Therapeutic Communities strongly welcome aftercare services based on improving the social reintegration during the recovering process. These follow-up services are critical in reducing relapsing episodes.

(i) Vigorous research and evidence based practices are unequivocally promoted. To accomplish so, we invite NGO and civil society to achieve

collaboration with academia and the research community. Cost-benefits studies are being developed to demonstrate the value of the Therapeutic Communities.

(j) We acknowledge that transparency and accountability are fundamental aspects of the functioning of the organizations in the addiction field. These are the mandatory prerequisites for obtaining and sustaining credibility from governments and society.

(k) Therapeutic Communities require interdisciplinary professional teams, including experts by experience, to deal with the complexity of addiction within a bio-psycho-social framework. The identity of the staff lies in a combination of professionalism, vocation of service and the passion for people.

(l) We recall that professional staff needs continuous training and education, mentoring, caregiving and external supervision. Staff well-being should be promoted in order to minimize the possibility of burn-out.

(m) We encourage the representatives from international and regional organizations, governments and civil society to recognize the role of the Therapeutic Communities as one of the most effective approaches for the drug users’ rehabilitation and social reintegration. In many countries, Therapeutic Communities are insufficiently funded.

Accordingly, those affected people with le ss income are incapacitated to access to adequate treatment. We also encourage the policy makers to support them, for they provide an irreplaceable aid for recovering addicted people, therefore fostering sustainable communities.

This declaration reaffirms the commitment of the world Therapeutic Community movement to serve addicted populations and their social networks by restoring their hope, dignity and personal well-being.