ON INTERNATIONAL DAY, BAN URGES GREATER EFFORTS TO CURB ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING

Marking the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for stepped up aid and tightening the rule of law to halt the cultivation, production and trafficking of illicit drugs.

This year is the centenary of drug control, with the Opium Commission having met in Shanghai, China, 100 years ago to bring an end to an opium epidemic, and Mr. Ban said that in more recent years, United Nations conventions have played a role in tackling the challenge of drug abuse and curbing its "terrible toll" on people worldwide.

"Drug abuse can be prevented, treated and controlled," he said in his message for the International Day, appealing to Member States to incorporate drug treatment into their public health programmes.

He also called for the full implementation of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as the UN Convention against Corruption, which can "help in the effort to prevent and control drug-related crime that is posing a serious security threat in many parts of the world."

In countries vulnerable to drug trafficking, increased development assistance and bolstering the rule of law are required, the Secretary-General said. "Absent these essentials, these states risk instability and will face even greater challenges in reaching the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs]," he added, referring to the eight anti-poverty targets, agreed on by world leaders, which have a 2015 deadline.

Earlier this week, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) cautioned that in the face of an increasingly brutal struggle for a bigger slice of the $50 billion global cocaine market between Central American drug cartels, legalizing narcotics would be an "historic mistake."

Antonio Maria Costa, the agency's Executive Director, called for a global boost in drug treatment and crime control, launching the UNODC's 2009 World Drug Report.

"Societies should not have to choose between protecting public health or public security. They can, and should, do both," he said in a call for more resources for drug prevention and treatment, and stronger measures to fight drug-related crime.
Over 40 per cent of the world's cocaine is seized, mostly in Colombia, compared to less than 20 per cent of opiates – opium, morphine and heroin – captured, according to the World Drug Report.
In West Africa, a major transportation hub for trafficking to Europe, a decline in seizures seems to reflect lower cocaine flows after five years of rapid growth, the report said.
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UN DRUG CHIEF CONGRATULATES GHANAIANS ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR COCAINE SEIZURE

UN DRUG CHIEF CONGRATULATES GHANAIANS ON MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR COCAINE SEIZURE
New York, May 22 2009 11:00AM
The head of the United Nations anti-drug agency today congratulated Ghana on the seizure of a multi-million dollar cocaine shipment in Port Tema earlier this week.

Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (<"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/index.html">UNODC), said the seizure "shows that law enforcement officials are getting better at reading the warning signs."

Ghanaian police and customs authorities, working in a Joint Port Control Unit which was established with the support of UNODC in 2008, discovered 72 kilograms of cocaine in a container from Ecuador. The shipment had a street value of around $ 7 million in Europe, UNODC <"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2009-22-05.html">said.

UNODC said Ghanaian law enforcement officials used profiling techniques learned from the UN training, noting that perhaps insiders in the port of Ecuador are cooperating with people in Port Tema to smuggle drugs and falsify customs documents.

This is the second notable success for the Port Tema authorities within a year. Soon after the launch of the UNODC training programme, customs officers intercepted three stolen luxury cars in containers coming from Spain, the agency said.

"Criminal groups should learn that developing countries are no longer a safe haven for smuggling," stressed Mr. Costa.

UNODC said some 420 million sea containers move around the world every year, with only a tiny fraction of them being inspected.

UNODC and the World Customs Organization have designed the Container Control Programme to assist Governments in developing countries to establish effective controls over the movement of containers and make it harder for terrorists and other criminals to use these for smuggling.

That Programme is now operational in Ecuador, Ghana, Pakistan, Senegal and Turkmenistan, and will be extended to ports in Central Asia and Latin America, UNODC said.

West Africa is a key transit hub for drug shipments en route to Europe. A report released by UNODC in October 2008 claimed that at least 50 tons of cocaine from Latin America are entering West Africa every year, en route to Europe where the drug sells for almost $2 billion.
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UN JOINS FORCES WITH WORLD’S PARLIAMENTS TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The United Nations today launched a manual for parliamentarians across the world aimed at helping lawmakers end the global scourge of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

"Around the world, millions of people, usually women and children, are trapped in a modern form of slavery called human trafficking," Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said at the launch of the handbook.

Trafficking in persons is a form of slavery, a human rights violation that constitutes a crime against the individual and the State, and it must be punished by legislative means, UNODC said in a news release.

"Twenty-first century abolitionists are now needed to enact laws and take measures to set victims of trafficking free and stamp out a crime that shames us all," stressed Mr. Costa, as he called on parliamentarians to put an end to human trafficking at the 120th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Addis Ababa.

According to a UNODC report published in February, based on information provided by 155 Member States, two out of every five countries covered by the report have yet to convict anyone on trafficking charges.

Although no UNODC figures are available for the number of trafficking victims worldwide, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) has said that two million people become enslaved annually.

UNODC reported that only one victim out of every 100 trafficking cases is rescued, and at present there are 22,500 cases of people being recovered worldwide. Also, nearly 80 per cent of reported trafficking comprises sexual exploitation, but sweatshops and child exploitation are also prevalent.

"Combating Trafficking in Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians"– created in collaboration with IPU – contains a compilation of international laws and good practices developed to combat human trafficking, and offers guidance on how national legislation can be brought in line with international standards.

The handbook not only outlines measures to prevent the crime but also to prosecute offenders and to protect victims, and includes advice on how to report on human trafficking and how to enlist civil society in the cause.
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UN-SUPPORTED HIV SERVICES TARGET DRUG-ADDICTED WOMEN AND AFGHANS IN IRAN

UN-SUPPORTED HIV SERVICES TARGET DRUG-ADDICTED WOMEN AND AFGHANS IN IRAN
New York, Mar 20 2009 4:00PM

The United Nations drug control agency has signed agreements with the Government of Iran to provide HIV prevention and care services to women and Afghan refugees there who are dependent on drugs.

HIV programmes for such vulnerable groups represent "an often neglected and humanitarian side of drug control," said Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), expressing thanks to the Netherlands for financial assistance and urging other funding partners to follow suit.

"These agreements are further evidence of UNODC's pro-health approach to drugs, and to a deepening of our partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Mr. Costa added.

According to UNODC, there are more than 900,000 Afghan refugees in Iran, down from a peak of 2 million in 2002 and 2003, making it one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

The group has been identified as being high-risk and has thus far not fully benefited from Iran's HIV prevention and support services, such as opioid substitution treatment, for injecting drug users.

The project is part of a three-year sub-regional initiative to assist Afghan drug-dependent refugees in Pakistan as well as those who have returned home.

"The hardships of Afghan refugees are compounded, not solved, by drugs. We need to reach out to this vulnerable group, and lower their vulnerability to drug abuse and the spread of HIV/AIDS through injecting drug use," Mr. Costa said.

Partners in the project include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), along with the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The second project targets Iranian women who are either drug dependent or affected by HIV or both, aiming to increase quality services tailored to the specific needs of these women in prison settings and elsewhere.

It will complement the "significant resources" that the Government of Iran already devotes to prevention and treatment of HIV and to drug-demand reduction measures, UNODC said.
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