UNODC ED: I am very pleased to be here despite how busy I am. This meeting is different every year – it is the voice of civil society and the people who have gone the difficult road to be the voice of people who can’t express themselves. We are going through difficult times for multilateralism and overseas development. It is important to keep believing what you do and keep asking the hard questions, keep representing the voice of people. We trust you, we respect your work, let’s get started.

Question 1: The current drug use trends suggest  a great diversification of markets and consumption patterns, and a widespread diffusion of substances in the social fabric. This encourages a progressive and increasing involvement of young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, not only in drug use but also in drug trafficking. What does UNODC recommend to Member States to protect children and adolescents and how can governments be encouraged to allocate more resources?

San Patrignano Foundation, Italy (Monica Barzanti), in person; Peace and Hope for Youth Development (PHY), Tanzania (Augustine Nyakatoma), online; World Children Charity Organization, Tanzania (King Ismail Ally Chakachene), online; Students Campaign Against Drugs, Kenya (Benjamin Odhiambo), in person; Uganda youth development link (Rogers Kasirye), in person

This is a number of questions in one. How to allocate more resources, and what is the advice for governments. There is no one size fits all. What works for youth in the UK does not work in Latin America or Africa. Youth have the same aspirations in different contexts, though they are impacted by the context and values of their community. Governments should invest in education and communities to have more opportunities for kids to express themselves – sport is very important. Keep dialogue with children and give them worth and hope. They come from disadvantaged backgrounds either for money to be part of a strong group of those they see as heroes without knowing risks. Raising awareness of parents and teaching parenting skills is important. Give them the opportunity to express themselves and invest in mental health services. Investment in prevention is investment in the future and saves money down the line. Security is important, countries need a strong judicial system to end impunity. Move quickly to combat criminal groups and gangs. Balanced approach to ensure prevention at source and strong hand to end impunity. Governments are all suffering from hardship and many economies are in a complex situation, having to spend more on military and defence. All over the world criminal groups are trying to attract youth to use and abuse them.

Question 2: Given the importance of closer collaboration among multilateral agencies, how is UNODC implementing the system-wide Common Position and how does it plan to engage with the decriminalization guidance being developed by UNAIDS in collaboration with UNDP, WHO, and OHCHR to ensure effective system-wide coherence?

Open Society Foundations, United States (Kiti Kajana Philips), in person; Instituto RIA, AC, Mexico (Zara Snapp), in person; Transform, UK (Steve Rolles)

We are leading a task team meeting regularly working within the framework of the Common Position and all of our field network to promote interagency initiatives and country teams at country level. We lead a central task team for implementation. Working on an interagency drug report taking stock of lessons learned set to be issued for the next CND.

Question 3: With growing commitments to prevention, the launch of UNODC’s CHAMPS initiative, and the global mobilization of the Oviedo Declaration, in your opinion, are we entering a new phase where drug use prevention will take priority in drug policy?

Association Proyecto Hombre, Spain (Berenice Santamaria), in person; Muskan Foundation, India (Dr. Bharat Bhushan), online; Dalgarno Institute, Australia (Shane Varcoe), in person

This is one of my favourite topics, being a mother and a grandmother – I have 6 grandkids and I am very concerned about the world they are growing in and how they approach this complex topic. Been making a paradigm shift making progress on prevention and talking to Member States about evidence based responses and pillar of prevention. There are many new techniques that are known to us and practitioners. We have launched CHAMPS with 12 training modules addressing children until 18 years working with social workers, coaches and all people working with families and communities. A number of countries have begun implementing this. We lack resources – governments like to invest in concrete short term interventions. They like to announce seizures and arrests. We need civil society to support prevention efforts and ask them to invest more into prevention to encourage them to invest more. Governments have eyes on the next election and want to say in the last 4 years we have done this but a more sustainable effort is prevention. Call on governments to mobilize resources for prevention and CHAMPS.

Question 4: In recent years, we have observed that civic space has been increasingly restricted across the CEECA region, compounding the challenges already faced by people who use drugs, LGBTQI+ individuals, sex workers, and people living with HIV.  Given these challenging developments, does UNODC have a coordinated plan of action to protect health and social service providers for people who use drugs and to ensure that civil society remains engaged in shaping, implementing, and evaluating effective responses?

Eurasian harm reduction association (EHRA), Lithuania (Ganna Dovbakh), in person

We have more than 100 NGOs in this CND. Past 5 years we have seen a growing number of civil society organisations use the forum and take opportunities to network and meet with governments. We will be working on our next strategy – in our previous strategy we had civil society as key partner and in many projects we partnered with civil society. In difficult places and vulnerable groups civil society is better able to reach groups and add flexibility. In Ukraine, Afghanistan, when the situation is difficult, civil society is at the frontlines and I know they will continue to be strong partners of ours. We will continue to include civil society as key partners and a pillar. Please send ideas for new strategies to coordinate and collaborate. 

Question 5: UNODC has been promoting evidence-based training through the Colombo plan with the Support of INL of which I have been a beneficiary, and I have seen very positive results. What plans does UNODC seek to put in place to ensure that without the support of key donor UNODC can still run the empowerment of civil society and what other areas of UNODC’s activities are affected?

Slum Child Foundation, Kenya (George Ochieng Odalo), in person; Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Bangladesh (Iqbal Masud), in person

All activities will be affected by the withdrawal of our largest donor, the USA. They have been the largest donor for years and globally. We will continue to work, we’re a solid organisation, we will continue our work. We’ll seek support form other donors (EU), we may merge some of our officers. We hope national governments will support us. 

Question 6: Could you please explain the key steps that UNODC will undertake to evaluate its current Strategy (2020-2025) and develop a new one beyond 2025 – and how civil society and affected communities will be meaningfully involved in this process?

International Drug Policy Consortium, United Kingdom (Marie Nougier), in person

Each year we review the implementation of our strategy and we issue a report on our achievements to make sure we’re on target. We’ve been doing this for 5 years. Our plan is to use this to develop the new strategy but we have been hit by a number of new donors so we’re assessing the impacts of this and try to imagine what the future holds with changing priorities from our donors. We’re trying to convince them of the need of our work. We are working in 150 countries and territories and plan to have all our offices, at least the large ones, be involved in consultations with member states and civil society in different parts of the world to provide us with inputs. There will be national and regional consultations with civil society. Civil society is a wider group than just focusing on drugs. Others are working on other aspects of our mandate. We will also consult with member states, our donors, and others on what we should focus on from 2025 to 2030. We will continue to engage with CSOs at the CND, CCPCJ, UNTOC. For that, we have 428 civil society organisations involved. We will ask our offices to engage with civil society partners as well. 

Question 7: Recent results from a global survey (Suarez Ordoñez et al., 2024) show that while over 90% of service providers acknowledge that trauma impacts treatment outcomes, 69.9% do not use a standardized tool for screening or assessing trauma and PTSD. What role can UNODC play in ensuring the integration of trauma care into SUD services and will it establish the much-needed international guidelines?

World Federation Against Drugs, Sweden (Cressida de Witte), in person; Pakistan Youth Organization (PYO) (Sana Ullah Rathore), in person

This is a challenging question because the world is so full of humanitarian crises that the trauma is widespread, including in Ukraine and Gaza where we will have traumatised generations. Health professionals and policy makers should be trained on how to respond to trauma. We need to do work with UNHCR and WHO, including for people displaced in humanitarian settings. We’ve developed trainings on this together. These materials are new and being rolled out in various settings. 

We have similar tools on the prevention side which we have rolled out where we can. We take opportunities where we can on working in the area of prevention or treatment. 

Question 8: Given the disproportionate impact of punitive drug policies on women, girls, and gender-expansive people—particularly Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities—what concrete actions is UNODC taking to work on a shift from militarized, punitive approaches toward transformative, community-led solutions that prioritize bodily autonomy, racial, and economic justice?

METZINERES, Spain (Aura Roig), in person

You’re very right, women, girls and vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected. Women are less likely to access treatment, legal aid. Prisons are not equipped to address the needs of women, women with children and pregnant women. Services may be there, but there is a huge stigma. In my country, Egypt, women will not acknowledge they have a drug problem, they may be afraid they cannot get married, the children might be taken away from them, parents don’t want their daughters to be exposed. I have created spaces for women to access these services. We used NGOs to reach women and this is where we had the biggest success. It’s a challenging problem but what we do is that we always call for what the international frameworks mandate us to do. We continue to prioritise rights and wellbeing, voluntary treatment, prevention and reintegration, alternatives to conviction and punishment, recovery oriented harm reduction. These are all programmes we’re promoting. 

Question 9: With conflicts exacerbating and an increased number of people being displaced, how is UNODC ensuring that displaced populations are protected from heightened risk and adverse security circumstances potentially leading to substance misuse? How can humanitarian aid be supported to include drug use prevention?

Nusroto Al-Anashid Association, Lebanon (Rima Saade), in person

Trauma informed responses are important. Forced migration puts people at risk and makes them less accessible. In humanitarian settings, people are focused on saving lives, so we need to give them added training and awareness. We have adapted our drug use prevention packages to humanitarian contexts. This has been implemented in Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. But we need to reach others in Africa and Latin America. It’s a difficult time in history. It makes the role of civil society more important. 

Question 10: How can UNODC enhance the dialogue with CSOs doing research on illicit drug markets in order to align independent research findings with official UNODC reporting, so we aim for a more coherent understanding of the dynamics and scope of illicit drug markets?

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), Switzerland (Darren Brookbanks), in person

I take this opportunity to recognise the work of GI-TOC. We work with civil society to collate data we already collect with Member States. UNODC has contacted our Dada Explained initiative. We are eager to build on existing research and complement it with what civil society does. We issue regular surveys on treatment capacities. Forums like the CND provide opportunities to meet with our research team. 

Question 11: How does UNODC plan to further implement the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention in the coming year and what initiatives do you recommend that combine the prevention of drug use with the promotion of life skills and youth leadership?

Drug Policy Centre in Sweden, Sweden (Peter Moilanen); Venezuela Libre de Drogas, Venezuela (Evelyn Guiralt), online

We have a number of initiatives where we try to combine life skills in many areas of our work. We focus on schools and others. We have reached 150,000 people across many countries with these programmes. Please discuss these programmes with colleagues. We engage with the Youth Forum here at the CND, we meet with them every year. We allow space for interventions. We have tested a programme to Serbia and it will be brought to Italy and Central Asia. We will evaluate the impact of this programme to spread it globally. In all prevention work, we include youth. 

Question 12: As reported by HRI’s Global Overview of the death penalty for drug offences series, drug offences continue to be a key driver in executions globally. This year’s figures show a dramatic increase in executions from the previous year, confirming the dire situation. Hundreds of executions were carried out, and death sentences were imposed in countries with active partnership programmes with UNODC. What specific measures is UNODC implementing to guarantee that programs in countries retaining the death penalty for drug offences do not inadvertently support or contribute to the use of capital punishment, and how will it explicitly integrate death penalty abolition into its new strategy?

Harm Reduction International, United Kingdom (Marcela Jofre); Amnesty International, United Kingdom (Chiara Sangiorgio and Daniel Joloy), in person

Thank you. Have you attended this forum before? Every year I address this question. The UNSG opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. We fully align with the opposition of the death penalty. However we have to work with all member states of the UN, including in countries where the death penalty is administered still. We keep calling for a moratorium, we repeat the position of the UNSG and when we work with those member states, it doesn’t mean we agree with their use of the death penalty. We work with them to implement all commitments and engage in dialogue with these member states. Sharing best practices and providing different points of view is always important to make a change. 

Question 13: The increasing use of cannabis among adolescents, especially with vaping devices, is an emerging public health threat that is highlighted in UNODC’s WDR 2024. As UNODC do you plan to recommend any additional prevention policies to Member States focusing on this issue?

Turkish Green Crescent Society (Türkiye Yesilay Cemiyeti) (Sara Evli), in person; Youth Council for Anti Narcotics (YOCFAN) (Syed Zulfiqar Hussain), online

At UNODC, we’re aware of social and peer pressure, of the trends and beliefs. We continue to recommend to member states that they should warn against cannabis, alcohol and tobacco. Awareness raising by and for youth is important, as is partnerships with the private sector. Civil society should call for applying pressure on the private sectors, to avoid marketing tools and all kinds of unhealthy behaviour. 

Question 14: What are your plans to expand access to harm reduction programs, considering resolution 67/4 adopted at the CND in 2024 that acknowledges this concept?

Agora, Mexico (Jorge Valderrabano), in person

The resolution in 2024 did mention harm reduction, but we’ve been promoting harm reduction for many years before that. We continued investing in harm reduction even during COVID, supporting OAT in many countries. In the Middle East, in Algeria and Egypt. We also provide support in Bangladesh, Pakistan and others. The term has been divisive as it has been interpreted differently by member states. But the resolution 67/4 focuses on preventing overdose deaths. We continue our work in this respect in line with international law. Context also matters: some states don’t have access or political will. So we do our best to support.

Question 15: It is now one year since the launch of the CHAMPS initiative by UNODC to implement children centered prevention strategies. Given the vital role that CSOs play in community-based prevention, we seek clarification on how UNODC envisions CSOs’ contribution to the CHAMPS initiative at both national and global levels. How does UNODC plan to engage CSOs in the initiative’s implementation, what mechanisms will be established to ensure their meaningful participation including providing input on program development, capacity-building efforts, and policy integration to enhance the initiative’s impact?

Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation, Pakistan (Cristina von Sperling Afridi), in person; Institute for Research and Development “Utrip”, Slovenia (Matej Košir), in person

It’s important to distinguish. Let me discuss the national level. CHAMPS has been designed to show the effectiveness of some prevention interventions. We wanted to go to few countries and move the system of prevention. The CHAMPS requires a commitment by governments to put resources to implement prevention. Help us mobilise those governments. That’s what we’ve been doing this past year. We have mobilised 5-6 governments to put resources towards it. Then we will get everybody on board, government and non-government, to implement implementation together. At the global level, we  need to keep our advocacy for evidence-based prevention where I’ve been privileged to partner with the Oviedo Declaration and we can see signs of this mobilisation as there are now systems of prevention being negotiated by member states we’d been targeting. 

Question 16: Given that the concept of harm reduction has been incorporated in CND resolution 67/4, we would like to inquire about the possibility of developing a handbook specifically focused on youth participation in harm reduction work. This initiative would mirror the “Handbook on Youth Participation in Drug Prevention Work” UNODC published in 2020. Would UNODC consider undertaking this project, in collaboration with youth-led organizations with expertise in harm reduction, to further support and enhance youth involvement across the spectrum of drug-related interventions?

Youth RISE, Brazil (Rebeca Marques Rocha), in person

We encourage youth-focused CSOs to engage relevant stakeholders in their countries to engage in initiatives like the Youth FOrum to better educate youth and society in general to understand more about alternative practices for drug treatment. We continue to work with you to seek resources and scale up our interventions. 

We try to hear from youth experts on how to promote and improve youth participation. This can be expanded in many different thematic areas. 

Question 17. Over the past six months, our youth-led efforts culminated in a Youth Declaration presented at the 68th CND, reflecting the voices of over 1,100 young people worldwide. In reviewing these inputs, we identified ongoing challenges and a critical gap in prevention education for youth. While we commend the important work being undertaken by UNODC and its partners for youth, we would like to understand what strategies and measures are being taken to ensure that these efforts are inclusive of all relevant youth CSOs?

The Social Innovation Intermediary, Sri Lanka (Mohamed Husni), in person

Not answered as response given just before.

Question 18. In 1925, cannabis was first placed under international treaty control. Evidence is overwhelming that the basis for this prohibition was biased, unscientific, and driven by racism and colonial ideology, fueling violence & criminality. 100 years later, cannabis is consumed more than ever in human history. In the context of the UN having core goals to fight against racism, discrimination, crime, and violence: how does the UNODC reflect on a century of international cannabis control? Does the UNODC consider it a successful 100 years?

Fields of Green for ALL NPC, South Africa (Myrtle Clarke), in person; Veterans Action Council, United States (Etienne Fontan), in person

This is what we describe as a politically loaded question! Let me start by explaining what we do. We work with countries to implement international drug commitments, not to review them. We implement what member states agree on. We promote policies focused on science. The conventions are flexible, science informed and guided by decisions by member states to control substances to avoid potential harm. Of course people are learning all the time about substances. We can speak about new harm, others are showing less harm. We have seen extensive research on cannabis. Countries have adopted medical cannabis programmes in the past few years. On scheduling, WHO, CND and INCB are involved in the decision making. The conventions aim to ensure that substances are available for medical and scientific purposes. They aim to provide prevention, treatment and social reintegration, and include the flexibility to allow decriminalisation of drug use to take place. 

Question 19. How does UNODC support countries in reviewing and reforming their drug laws, are there experts assigned to countries to support the drug law review process and how do you determine priority countries?

REAJUD, Mozambique (Job Mutombene), online; Recovering Nepal (Ujjwal Karmacharya), online

We have had countries develop laws, action plans, etc. We help them develop these, and to monitor implementation. We have experts, some in Vienna, some based in the field. We provide legislative assistance to implement the drug conventions. Our assistance is always in response to official requests by member states. We have launched a NAtional Network for Legislative Assistance to share expertise on development of legal and policy frameworks. When you speak of priority countries, we focus on countries where we see an increase in drug use, trafficking, etc. Our focus has been on Africa and Latin America, with two regional strategies, but we work will all member states based on their requests.