2017 Resolution on international cooperation to address and counter the world drug problem

71st UNGA 71st
15 Feb 2017

Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/71/211

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Analysis of precedential value

This res­o­lu­tion was adopted by the UN Gen­eral Assem­bly (UNGA) with­out a gen­eral vote in Feb­ru­ary 2017. The UNGA is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

The draft of this res­o­lu­tion was co-authored by 11 UN Mem­ber States and co-spon­sored by 30 oth­ers. It was approved by the UNGA Social, Human­i­tar­ian and Cul­tural Com­mit­tee before being pre­sented to the entire body.

Used as precedent

gender equality

• “Reit­er­ates its call to main­stream a gen­der per­spec­tive into and ensure the involve­ment of women in all stages of the devel­op­ment, imple­men­ta­tion, mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion of drug poli­cies and pro­grammes, to develop and dis­sem­i­nate gen­der-sen­si­tive and age-appro­pri­ate mea­sures that take into account the spe­cific needs and cir­cum­stances faced by women and girls with regard to the world drug prob­lem and, as States par­ties, imple­ment the Con­ven­tion on the Elim­i­na­tion of All Forms of Dis­crim­i­na­tion against Women.” (para­graph 14)

combination prevention, harm reduction

• “Urges Mem­ber States to increase the avail­abil­ity, cov­er­age and qual­ity of sci­en­tific evi­dence-based pre­ven­tion mea­sures and tools that tar­get rel­e­vant age and risk groups in mul­ti­ple set­tings, reach­ing youth in school as well as out of school, among oth­ers, through drug abuse pre­ven­tion pro­grammes and pub­lic aware­ness-rais­ing cam­paigns, includ­ing by using the Inter­net, social media and other online plat­forms, to develop and imple­ment pre­ven­tion cur­ric­ula and early inter­ven­tion pro­grammes for use in the edu­ca­tion sys­tem at all lev­els, as well as in voca­tional train­ing, includ­ing in the work­place, and to enhance the capac­ity of teach­ers and other rel­e­vant pro­fes­sion­als to pro­vide or rec­om­mend coun­sell­ing, pre­ven­tion and care ser­vices.” (para­graph 15)

combination prevention

• “Invites Mem­ber States to con­sider enhanc­ing coop­er­a­tion among pub­lic health, edu­ca­tion and law enforce­ment author­i­ties when devel­op­ing pre­ven­tion ini­tia­tives.” (para­graph 16)

harm reduction

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to pro­mote the inclu­sion in national drug poli­cies, in accor­dance with national leg­is­la­tion and as appro­pri­ate, of ele­ments for the pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of drug over­dose, in par­tic­u­lar opi­oid over­dose, includ­ing the use of opi­oid recep­tor antag­o­nists, such as nalox­one, to reduce drug-related mor­tal­ity.” (para­graph 19)

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to enhance access to treat­ment for drug use dis­or­ders for those who are incar­cer­ated and pro­mote effec­tive over­sight and encour­age, as appro­pri­ate, self-assess­ments of con­fine­ment facil­i­ties, tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the United Nations stan­dards and norms on crime pre­ven­tion and crim­i­nal jus­tice, includ­ing the United Nations Stan­dard Min­i­mum Rules for the Treat­ment of Pris­on­ers (the Nel­son Man­dela Rules), imple­ment, where appro­pri­ate, mea­sures aimed at address­ing and elim­i­nat­ing prison over­crowd­ing and vio­lence, and pro­vide capac­ity-build­ing to rel­e­vant national author­i­ties.” (para­graph 30)

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to ensure that mea­sures to pre­vent the illicit cul­ti­va­tion of and to erad­i­cate plants con­tain­ing nar­cotic and psy­chotropic sub­stances respect fun­da­men­tal human rights, take due account of tra­di­tional licit uses, where there is his­tor­i­cal evi­dence of such use, and of the pro­tec­tion of the envi­ron­ment, in accor­dance with the three inter­na­tional drug con­trol con­ven­tions, and also take into account, as appro­pri­ate and in accor­dance wi th national leg­is­la­tion, the United Nations Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples.” (para­graph 63)

combination prevention, negative legal determinants

• “Encour­ages the devel­op­ment, adop­tion and imple­men­ta­tion, with due regard for national, con­sti­tu­tional, legal and admin­is­tra­tive sys­tems, of alter­na­tive or addi­tional mea­sures with regard to con­vic­tion or pun­ish­ment in cases of an appro­pri­ate nature, in accor­dance with the three inter­na­tional drug con­trol con­ven­tions and tak­ing into account, as appro­pri­ate, rel­e­vant United Nations stan­dards and rules, such as the United Nations Stan­dard Min­i­mum Rules for Non-cus­to­dial Mea­sures (the Tokyo Rules).” (para­graph 24)

harm reduction, human rights

• “Empha­sizes the need to enhance the knowl­edge of pol­i­cy­mak­ers and the capac­ity, as appro­pri­ate, of rel­e­vant national author­i­ties on var­i­ous aspects of the world drug prob­lem in order to ensure that national drug poli­cies, as part of a com­pre­hen­sive, inte­grated and bal­anced approach, fully respect all human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms and pro­tect the health, safety and well-being of indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies, vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of soci­ety, com­mu­ni­ties and soci­ety as a whole, and to that end encour­ages the coop­er­a­tion of Mem­ber States with, and coop­er­a­tion among, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Inter­na­tional Nar­cotics Con­trol Board, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion and other rel­e­vant United Nations enti­ties, within their respec­tive man­dates, includ­ing those rel­e­vant to the above-men­tioned issues, and rel­e­vant regional and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, as well as with civil soci­ety and the pri­vate sec­tor, as appro­pri­ate.” (para­graph 27)

stigma and discrimination

• “Urges Mem­ber States to ensure non-dis­crim­i­na­tory access to health, care and social ser­vices in pre­ven­tion, pri­mary care and treat­ment pro­grammes, includ­ing those offered to per­sons in prison or pre­trial deten­tion, which are to be on a level equal to those avail­able in the com­mu­nity, and to ensure that women, includ­ing detained women, have access to ade­quate health ser­vices and coun­sell­ing, includ­ing those par­tic­u­larly needed dur­ing preg­nancy.” (para­graph 28)

human rights, positive legal determinants

• “Encour­ages the pro­mo­tion, where appro­pri­ate, in the frame­work of inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion, of the use of law enforce­ment tech­niques, con­sis­tent with national leg­is­la­tion and inter­na­tional law, includ­ing applic­a­ble human rights oblig­a­tions, in order to ensure that drug traf­fick­ers are brought to jus­tice and that major crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions are dis­rupted and dis­man­tled.” (para­graph 38)

access to health products, harm reduction

• “Urges all Mem­ber States to enact com­pre­hen­sive mea­sures aimed at stem­ming the abuse of pre­scrip­tion drugs, in par­tic­u­lar through the estab­lish­ment of aware­ness-rais­ing ini­tia­tives tar­get­ing the gen­eral pub­lic and health-care providers.” (para­graph 45)

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to con­tinue efforts to iden­tify and mon­i­tor trends in the com­po­si­tion, pro­duc­tion, preva­lence and dis­tri­bu­tion of new psy­choac­tive sub­stances, as well as pat­terns of use and adverse con­se­quences, and assess the risks to the health and safety of indi­vid­u­als and soci­ety as a whole and the poten­tial uses of new psy­choac­tive sub­stances for med­ical and sci­en­tific pur­poses, and on that basis to develop and strengthen domes­tic and national leg­isla­tive, reg­u­la­tory, admin­is­tra­tive and oper­a­tional responses and prac­tices by domes­tic and national leg­isla­tive, law enforce­ment, judi­ciary, social and wel­fare, edu­ca­tional and health author­i­ties.” (para­graph 55)

access to health products

• “Invites Mem­ber States to tar­get the illicit cul­ti­va­tion of crops used for the illicit pro­duc­tion and man­u­fac­ture of drugs and address related fac­tors by imple­ment­ing com­pre­hen­sive strate­gies aimed at alle­vi­at­ing poverty and strength­en­ing the rule of law, account­able, effec­tive and inclu­sive insti­tu­tions and pub­lic ser­vices and insti­tu­tional frame­works, as appro­pri­ate, and by pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment aimed at enhanc­ing the wel­fare of the affected and vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tion through licit alter­na­tives.” (para­graph 56)