Friday March 17th 10:00

Chair: Member states will conduct a 2024 mid-term review of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration. Multi-year work plan adopted by the commission in 2019 calls on the Commission to conduct in 2023 a comprehensive stock taking on progress made to implementing commitments. The Commission should consider making arrangements for mid-term review regarding format and organization of work in preparation for the 67th session. I have tabled a draft resolution on these preparations which has been considered in consultations before opening of the session. This reached agreement in informals and is now up for adoption. I now call on the Commission to adopt the resolution. 

L2 is adopted.

EU: EU and allied states would like to commend you on efforts to reach consensus to pave the way for the mid-term review, we are grateful for this constructive approach. The EU looks forward to stock taking exercise in the lead up to the 2024 review. Our joint ambition should be to accelerate, when needed, commitments to the 2016 UNGASS Outcome Document. We look forward to transparent and effective stock taking which must include regional organizations, UN entities, academia, CSO, private sector. 

China: China attaches great importance to implementation of the Ministerial Declaration and conventions opposing legalization and misuse of human rights conventions. All states must implement a comprehensive anti drugs strategy based on sovereignty, integrity, and non interference in affairs of other countries. We support review in 2024 and hope to ensure it will be conducted in a comprehensive and balanced manner. 

US: Looking to 2024 and 2029 our focus must be to drive smart and strategic action to tackle all aspects of the world drug problem. We need to redouble action against today’s most pressing threats. Must conduct honest stock taking and must learn from lessons. One lesson is that synthetic drugs pose a grave health and security challenge. These challenges spreading to new regions across the globe. We must have coordinated, global action against threat and we must work to ensure it doesn’t exacerbate problems in domestic challenges. International cooperation is needed to curb these threats. 2024 allows us to look forward to 2029 and beyond and this process must be informed by a diversity of perspectives from NGOs. We applaud efforts of Vienna and New York NGO Committees in this regard. We look forward to working together to formulate an action oriented outcome document.

Burkina Faso: We reaffirm our attachment to the three conventions and the principle of shared and common responsibility of all political commitments, notably the political document of 2019 and the action plan and ministerial declaration, UNGASS outcome document, and the 2014 declaration. We welcome the high-level meeting next year and reiterate our congratulations to the Chair on presenting the draft resolution on this. Being aware of criminal organizations linked to drug trafficking do not wait, we call on all member states to attach high importance to this upcoming meeting. We are committed to working in good faith with all stakeholders on an outcome document that will clearly outline the way forward to tackle the world drug problem.

Honduras: We are interested in preparing a concise, action-oriented document that will be negotiated in the inter-sessional period.  We hope it will represent significant political impetus and sped up compliance with existing commitments with all agreements reflected in the 2019 declaration.

Namibia: The 2019 declaration is an important roadmap for our work and promotes collaboration among countries. It also calls on us to address poverty and eliminate discrimination against persons who use drugs. It outlines our priorities, and we are at an advanced stage to revive the coordinating mechanisms of international response. Namibia continues to face challenges, including limited resources and capacity to implement effective policies and a lack of public awareness. We need to strengthen law enforcement and judicial capacities and also improve rehabilitation possibilities. It is essential that we continue to prioritize strengthening the capacities of national drug control and law enforcement agencies. We remain fully committed to the three conventions and look forward to the upcoming mid-term review.

Egypt:  We look forward to the mid-term review with full participation of all stakeholders, including civil society. We look forward to the outcome document that will be based on consensus.

VNGOC: (full statement TBA)

OSF: (full statement TBA)

Chair: Okay, now we move on to agenda item 11.