International Cooperation Against the World Drug Problem

A/RES/58/141No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 109International drug control, published in 2004.

What other versions does this mandate have?

18 versions · 1999–2016

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/70/182

2016A/RES/70/182International cooperation against the world drug problemLatestCompare with previous version
2015A/RES/69/201International cooperation against the world drug problemCompare with previous version
2014A/RES/68/197International cooperation against the world drug problemCompare with previous version
2013A/RES/67/193International cooperation against the world drug problemCompare with previous version
2012A/RES/66/183International cooperation against the world drug problemCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2004.

2004A/59/188International cooperation against the world drug problem report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

49 operative paragraphs

I.Respect for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and international law in countering the world drug problem

Reaffirms that countering the world drug problem is a common and shared responsibility that must be addressed in a multilateral setting, requires an integrated and balanced approach, and must be carried out in full conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, and in particular with full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of States and all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and on the basis of the principles of equal rights and mutual respect;

Urges all States to ratify or accede to and implement all the provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 19718 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of l988;

II.International cooperation to counter the world drug problem and follow-up to the twentieth special session

Reaffirms the Joint Ministerial Statement and further measures to implement the action plans emanating from the twentieth special session of the General Assembly, adopted during the ministerial segment of the forty-sixth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which emphasizes that the world drug problem must be addressed in multilateral, regional, bilateral and national settings and that, in order to succeed, action to counter it has to involve all Member States, that action must be supported by strong international and development cooperation and must be further included in national development priorities, and that it requires a balance between supply reduction and demand reduction, as well as a comprehensive strategy that combines alternative development, including, as appropriate, preventive alternative development, eradication, interdiction, law enforcement, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation as well as education;

Calls upon all relevant actors to continue their close cooperation with Governments in promoting and implementing the outcome of the twentieth special session and of the ministerial segment of the forty-sixth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs;

National drug control strategies

Stresses that, in order to be able to further develop sound, evidence-based drug control policies, data collection and analysis and evaluation of the results of ongoing policies are essential tools;

Demand reduction

Urges all Member States to implement the Action Plan4 for the Implementation of the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction5 and to strengthen their national efforts to counter the abuse of illicit drugs in their population, in particular among children and young people, noting with concern the increasing levels of drug abuse among them;

Urges States, in order to achieve a significant and measurable reduction of drug abuse by 2008:

To further implement comprehensive demand reduction policies and programmes, including research, covering all drugs under international control, in order to raise public awareness of the drug problem, paying special attention to prevention and education and providing, especially to young people and others at risk, information on developing life skills, making healthy choices and engaging in drug-free activities;

To further develop and implement comprehensive demand reduction policies, including risk reduction activities, that are in line with sound medical practice and the international drug control treaties and that reduce the adverse health and social consequences of drug abuse, and to provide a wide range of comprehensive services for the treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration of drug abusers, with appropriate resources being devoted to such services, since social exclusion constitutes an important risk factor for drug abuse;

To enhance early intervention programmes that dissuade children and young people from the use of illicit drugs, including polydrug use and the recreational use of substances such as cannabis and synthetic drugs, especially amphetamine-type stimulants, and to encourage the active participation of the younger generation in campaigns against drug abuse;

To provide a comprehensive range of services for preventing the transmission of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases associated with drug abuse, including education, counselling and drug abuse treatment, and in particular to assist developing countries in their efforts to deal with these issues;

Illicit synthetic drugs

Urges States to renew their efforts, at the national, regional and international levels, to implement the comprehensive measures covered in the Action Plan against Illicit Manufacture, Trafficking and Abuse of Amphetamine-type Stimulants and Their Precursors, to make special efforts to counter the abuse and recreational use of amphetamine-type stimulants, especially by young people, and to disseminate information on the adverse health, social and economic consequences of such abuse;

Control of precursors

Encourages States:

To establish or strengthen mechanisms for making the most effective use of existing systems and for ensuring strict control of chemical precursors used to manufacture illicit drugs;

To support international operations aimed at preventing the diversion of chemical precursors used in the illicit manufacture of cocaine, heroin and amphetamine-type stimulants by exchanging information with other States and conducting timely joint law enforcement operations, including the use of controlled deliveries;

To further international cooperation in the implementation of article 12, on control of precursors, of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988,11 in close cooperation with the International Narcotics Control Board, and the measures agreed upon at the twentieth special session;

Judicial cooperation

Calls upon all States to strengthen international cooperation among judicial and law enforcement authorities at all levels in order to prevent and combat illicit drug trafficking and to share and promote best operational practices in order to interdict illicit drug trafficking, including by establishing and strengthening regional mechanisms, providing technical assistance and establishing effective methods for cooperation, in particular in the areas of air, maritime and port control;

Countering money-laundering

Urges States to strengthen action, in particular international cooperation and technical assistance aimed at preventing and combating the laundering of proceeds derived from drug trafficking and related criminal activities, with the support of the United Nations system, international institutions such as the World Bank and regional development banks, to develop and strengthen comprehensive international regimes to combat money-laundering, and to improve information-sharing among financial institutions and agencies in charge of preventing and detecting the laundering of those proceeds;

Calls upon States to consider including provisions in their national drug control plans for the establishment of national networks to enhance their respective capabilities to prevent, monitor, control and suppress serious offences connected with money-laundering and the financing of terrorist acts, and in general to counter all acts of transnational organized crime, and to supplement existing regional and international networks dealing with money-laundering;

International cooperation in illicit crop eradication and alternative development

Calls upon States, where appropriate:

To enhance support, including, where appropriate, through the provision of new and additional financial resources, for alternative development and elimination programmes undertaken by countries affected by the illicit cultivation of cannabis, especially in Africa, of opium poppy and of coca bush, in particular national programmes that seek to reduce social marginalization and promote sustainable economic development;

To enhance joint strategies, through international and regional cooperation, to strengthen, including by training and education, alternative development, eradication and interdiction capacity, with the aim of eliminating illicit crop cultivation;

To encourage international cooperation, including, as appropriate, preventive alternative development, to prevent illicit crop cultivation from emerging in or being relocated to other areas;

To provide, in accordance with the principle of shared responsibility, greater access to their markets for products of alternative development programmes, which are necessary for the creation of employment and the eradication of poverty;

To establish or reinforce, where appropriate, national mechanisms to monitor and verify illicit crops;

To continue to contribute to the maintenance of a balance between the licit supply of and demand for opiate raw materials used for medical and scientific purposes and to cooperate in preventing the proliferation of sources of production of opiate raw materials;

Welcomes the adoption by the Transitional Government of Afghanistan of a national drug strategy, and notes the need for continued coordination with the international efforts;

Recommends that adequate help be provided to Afghanistan within the framework of the comprehensive international strategy, carried out, inter alia, under the auspices of the United Nations and through other multilateral forums, in support of the commitment of the Transitional Government of Afghanistan, including the strengthening of “security belts” in the region, and reaffirms that the response to this unique situation will not detract from the commitments and resources devoted to the fight against drugs in other parts of the world;

III.Action by the United Nations system

Emphasizes that the multidimensional nature of the world drug problem calls for the promotion of integration and coordination of drug control activities throughout the United Nations system, including in the follow-up to major United Nations conferences, as well as other relevant multilateral institutions and organizations;

Reaffirms its resolve to continue to strengthen the United Nations machinery for international drug control, in particular the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the International Narcotics Control Board, in order to enable them to fulfil their mandates, bearing in mind the recommendations contained in Economic and Social Council resolution 1999/30 of 28 July 1999 and the measures taken and recommendations adopted by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at its forty-fourth, forty-fifth and forty-sixth sessions, aimed at the enhancement of its functioning, in particular in its resolutions 44/16 of 29 March 2001, 45/17 of 15 March 2002 and 46/8 of 15 April 2003;

Encourages the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as the global coordinating body in international drug control and as the governing body of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, and the International Narcotics Control Board to continue their useful work on the control of precursors and other chemicals used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances;

Notes that the International Narcotics Control Board needs sufficient resources to carry out all its mandates, and therefore urges Member States to commit themselves in a common effort to assigning adequate and sufficient budgetary resources to the Board, in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/20 of 23 July 1996, and emphasizes the need to maintain its capacity, inter alia, through the provision of appropriate means by the Secretary-General and adequate technical support by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, and calls for enhanced cooperation and understanding between Member States and the Board in order to enable it to implement all its mandates under the international drug control conventions;

Welcomes the efforts of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme to implement its mandate, and requests the Programme to continue:

To strengthen dialogue with Member States and also to ensure continued improvement in management, so as to contribute to enhanced and sustainable programme delivery and further encourage the Executive Director to maximize the effectiveness of the Programme, inter alia, through the full implementation of Commission on Narcotic Drugs resolutions 44/16 and 45/17, in particular the recommendations contained therein;

To strengthen cooperation with Member States and with United Nations programmes, funds and relevant agencies, as well as relevant regional organizations and agencies and non-governmental organizations, and to provide, on request, assistance in implementing the outcome of the twentieth special session;

To increase its assistance, within the available voluntary resources, to countries that are deploying efforts to reduce illicit crop cultivation by, in particular, adopting alternative development programmes, and to explore new and innovative funding mechanisms;

To allocate, while keeping the balance between supply and demand reduction programmes, adequate resources to allow it to fulfil its role in the implementation of the Action Plan4 for the Implementation of the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Drug Demand Reduction,5 and support countries, upon their request, to further develop and implement drug demand reduction policies;

To strengthen dialogue and cooperation with multilateral development banks and with international financial institutions so that they may undertake lending and programming activities related to drug control in interested and affected countries to implement the outcome of the twentieth special session, and to keep the Commission on Narcotic Drugs informed of further progress made in this area;

To take into account the outcome of the twentieth special session, to include in its report on the illicit traffic in drugs an updated, objective and comprehensive assessment of worldwide trends in illicit traffic and transit in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, including methods and routes used, and to recommend ways and means of improving the capacity of States along those routes to address all aspects of the drug problem;

To publish the World Drug Report, with comprehensive and balanced information about the world drug problem, and to seek additional extrabudgetary resources for its publication in all the official languages;

To provide technical assistance, from available voluntary contributions for that purpose, to those States identified by relevant international bodies as the most affected by the transit of drugs, in particular developing countries in need of such assistance and support;

To develop action-oriented strategies to assist Member States to implement the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Declaration, and to report to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at its forty-seventh session on the follow-up to the Action Plan;

To provide assistance, subject to the availability of resources, at the request of States and respecting fully their sovereignty and territorial integrity, and with the support of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency, among others, in detecting on time the emergence or relocation of illicit crop cultivation;

Welcomes the holding in Paris, on 21 and 22 May 2003, of the Conference on Drug Routes from Central Asia to Europe, and encourages the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other relevant international institutions to continue in their follow-up action on the recommendations of the Conference (the Paris Pact);

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, subject to the availability of resources and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs guidelines for the use of general-purpose funds, together with international financial institutions and the organizations involved in preventing and suppressing money-laundering and drug trafficking, to facilitate the provision of training and advice through technical cooperation in States, when requested, taking into account, inter alia, the recommendations on money-laundering and the financing of terrorism formulated by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering and its regional groups;

Urges all Governments to provide the fullest possible financial and political support to the United Nations International Drug Control Programme by widening its donor base and increasing voluntary contributions, in particular general-purpose contributions, to enable it to continue, expand and strengthen its operational and technical cooperation activities, and recommends that a sufficient share of the regular budget of the United Nations be allocated to the Programme to enable it to fulfil its mandates and to work towards securing assured and predictable funding;

Encourages the meetings of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies and of the Subcommission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in the Near and Middle East of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to continue to contribute to the strengthening of regional and international cooperation, taking into account the outcome of the twentieth special session and the ministerial segment of the forty-sixth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs;

Calls upon the relevant United Nations agencies and entities, other international organizations and international financial institutions, including regional development banks, to mainstream drug control issues into their programmes;

Takes note of the report of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the report of the Secretary-General, and, taking into account the promotion of integrated reporting, requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution.

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