Chair: I now invite secretariat from the governing body to make remarks.

Secretariat: Work of subsidiary bodies undertaken in 2019. Was a year where we had all 5 meetings. The meeting in Lisbon in July was the first meeting ever that was at the opening and had both the Minister of Justice and Health. Both jointly opening the meeting and setting the stage and showing how could both support each other’s work. Set up the working group to improve cooperation between domestic authorities. In Mauritius, the meeting was opened by the PM. A reference was made to the implementation workshop that the secretariat have been holding. The National implementation workshop was held. These topics reflect the regional priorities and defined by the meeting at its previous session. The secretariat is preparing that these working groups are sharing good practices, lessons learned among practitioners and make recommendations brought back to the commission and are contained within the document. 3rd meeting in Uzbekistan. Was having working groups on topics defined by the region as priorities. Some are similar to ones held in other regional meetings during the same year. The next took place in Latin America in Peru. Having the meeting led to operational recommendations there were dealt with in the working group. The last meeting was held by Bangkok and joined by the minister of justice of Thailand. It had a rich range of topics dealt with in the working groups which is the core of what the meetings are having on their agenda. As you can see in the report, they were discussing the follow up to the policy commitments made. We can host the subsidiary bodies, feel free to contact us and we can share information with you.

Chair: Invite the chief of implementation support section of UNODC

Chief of implementation support section of UNODC: We had 5 meetings as mentioned. We have the European meeting too. The meetings are the practical branch of the CND where we have experts from different countries attending, making decisions at the political level. We have the experts coming together discussing different aspects. We have the meetings organised in the working group which allows open discussion on ongoing challenges and concerns. This was captured in the report of each meeting and is on our website and is accessed through the internet. Across the regions, we have the working groups. Some of them- importance of action and intelligence, intelligence led police based on, misuse of new technologies, new model of human trafficking, trafficking in synthetic cannabinoids and other interesting topics related to money laundering, cryptocurrency… Brought together expert showing open exchange on the problems faced. The participants reiterated the need to make sure used to address practical aspects of cooperation more actively. These issues are related to national, regional and interregional level. Sharing important criminal intelligence: Early warning advisory of nps, strong cooperation between police, law enforcement, cooperation with private sector, law enforcement agencies using special investigative techniques, making use of existing mechanisms such as GPC Interpol etc. allocating more resources to drug testing to provide tools to frontline officers. Studying best practices of other countries. Ensure evidence that dark net is properly secured, training on cryptocurrencies, training tools exchange by ms. Role of UNODC of tools and helping to provide training. During the previous sessions, participants platform should be used to arrange meetings of officers. Appreciate the level of experts. Strong interest for furthering regional and international cooperation to counter organised crime. Need for exchange of the best practices between agencies. We are all human and mostly promoted when we see each other to talk to each other openly and exchange knowledge. It was followed by number of officer meetings investigating cases. They followed with concrete seizures. We are continuing with MS and programmes by UNODC run globally on country levels. See that the discussions and exchange of opinion are translated into something actionable.

Mauritius: We hosted the 29th meeting of HONLEA Africa. Besides active discussions in Plenary on the situation in our region with regard to drugs, we held discussions on four areas. The recommendations stemming from the groups have been made available to the commission as part of the report to its subsidiary bodies. A few: when discussing how to address drug trafficking by sea (including transatlantic cocaine), it was recommended to intensity the exchange of actionable intelligence and law enforcement cooperation between Latin America and West African countries, and within countries in Asia, and (…). Illicit financial flows and the use of CDMs and cryptocurrencies present challenges and we heard of the need for cooperation within the region but also nationally and internationally. Also particularly relevant for the African continent, are the specific needs of children and youth in contact with justice system for drug related offences. Governments should adopt drug prevention strategies based on scientific evidence and that follow international standards. We need to prevent children and youth to enter the criminal justice system. These are two of the substantive recommendations. We’re satisfied with the large level of participation. The meeting was graced by an opening statement by the Prime Minister of Manutius, demonstrating the importance our country attaches to the world drug problem. We showcased initiatives developed in health and law enforcement and shared experiences with other countries through visits to facilities and talks with experts on site. Both our Chair of the meeting and host, hosting HONLEA Africa was rewarding.-

Portugal: We hosted the latest HONLEA Europe. It was an important opportunity to discuss main trends and challenges in drug trafficking and effective responses, including cooperation and technical assistance. 25 countries joined. UN officials and international and regional organisations. To discuss the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the world drug problem. In particular cooperation between law enforcement, health and … Both our justice and health ministers opened the meeting, which represents our approach since 1999. Not either health or justice, but an integrated approach that respects human rights. An approach that is envisaged by UNGASS 2016. And in line with the Ministerial Declaration of 2019.

Republic of Korea: The extent of the use of the darknet to trade drugs and cryptocurrencies for money laundering differs from country to country. The level of investment in countering this varies. The number of users in Korea continues to grow. The use of these currencies remains high. The Korean National Police Agency has conducted an intensive crackdown on distributors that are involved in the drug trade. Apprehension of drug offenders using these technologies. To use the capabilities of investigators, offering special courses on darknet and crypto-currency investigations. They all can take specialised tracking classes online. The agency has established a darknet tracking system to help investigators on site to track down illegal information. National police agency shared these activities in detail at the recent meeting, sharing cases and concerns with each country. The Korean government agrees on the importance of subsidiary bodies and will hold the 44th HONLEA in Korea, co-hosted by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and UNODC. We welcome the upcoming resolution to be newly adopted in this CND and implement the new resolution.

China: As a regional counter drug law enforcement cooperation platform, the HONLEA mechanism subsidiary bodies have over the years contributed to regional law enforcement operations to counter drugs. China participates every year in meetings to exchange ideas with HONLEA. It has been set up to create synergies with other anti-drug law enforcement agencies and to address narcotic drugs. China supports HONLEAs efforts. 

USA: The United States welcomes the work of the CNDs and the work of subsidiary bodies including on the trafficking of narcotics and other drugs. Subsidiary reports for states are useful to CND members because they contain practical regional-specific suggestions. Our subsidiary report provides us with several key challenges. The subsidiary bodies highlighted the need to bolster capacity by sharing information between law enforcement agencies. There is also clearly pressing need for governments to remain agile. Governments encouraged the use of special investigative techniques in anti-money laundering methods. And to continue using the Early Warning System to better detect new emerging drugs. We also need more money put into laboratories and technical staff and law enforcement ability to detect new drugs. Law enforcement and financial regulatory agencies also needs tools it better detect and investigate cyber -related offences. Law agency should have specialised units for this and be able to investigate the criminal use of the dark net. We need to strengthen info sharing, especially with private corporations. The US is therefore pleased to be sponsoring the public-private partnership resolution, encouraging work with social media/ technology etc. We need improved cooperation with the law enforcement and health sectors. We need multidisciplinary approaches. We look forward to participating with other member states in the future of the HONLEAs and sharing constructive ideas in this regard. 

Senegal: I commend the initiative or organising HONLEA meetings, the experience in Mauritius was pleasing and I welcome the decisions taken there. I welcome the fact that on the agenda of the CND there is a specific issue on the follow up to commitments in the 2019 declaration and I would like to emphasise the fruitful exchanges in Mauritius on the dark net and crypto currencies and concealements, especially for maritime drug trafficking. Further, post seizure investigations are particularly important in dismantling criminal networks.