Action Plan on International Cooperation on the Eradication of Illicit Drug Crops and on Alternative Development

A/RES/S-20/4[E]View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 10e International cooperation in illicit crop eradication and alternative development, published in 1998.

What subjects does this mandate have?

8 subjects

Crop Eradication Development Assistance Drug Control Information Exchange Law Enforcement Narcotic Raw Materials Programmes of Action Sustainable Development

What’s in this document?

41 operative paragraphs

A/RES/S-20/4 [E]

E

Despite the adoption of international conventions promoting the prohibition of illicit drug crops, the problem of the illicit cultivation of the opium poppy, the coca bush and the cannabis plant continues at alarming levels. History has shown that there is no single response to reducing and eliminating the cultivation and production of illicit drugs. Balanced approaches are likely to result in more efficient strategies and successful outcomes.

Action

States should strongly condemn, and urge community leaders to condemn, the illicit cultivation of the opium poppy, the coca bush and the cannabis plant, as well as other illicit drug crops.

States should ensure that the specific commitments in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 as amended by the 1972 Protocol4 and in the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 19882 regarding illicit drug crop cultivation are implemented and enforced. In particular, this includes paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 14 of the 1988 Convention, which require parties to take appropriate measures to prevent the illicit cultivation of plants containing narcotic and psychotropic substances and to cooperate to improve the effectiveness of eradication efforts, inter alia, giving support to alternative development.

States in which illicit cultivation of drug crops exists should develop national strategies for the reduction and elimination of illicit crops, including concrete measurable goals and objectives, taking into account existing drug control master plans. National drug crop reduction and elimination strategies should include comprehensive measures such as programmes in alternative development, law enforcement and eradication.

States should take appropriate measures to develop and implement national plans for alternative development, creating appropriate institutions, as well as a suitable legal, economic and social framework.

Alternative development programmes and projects should be consistent with national drug control policies and national sustainable development policies and strategies in the affected rural communities.

In cases of low-income production structures among peasants, alternative development is more sustainable and socially and economically more appropriate than forced eradication.

II. Strengthening of international cooperation for alternative development

Challenge

Alternative development is an important component for generating and promoting lawful, viable and sustainable economic options to illicit drug crop cultivation and is one of the key components of the policy and programmes for reducing illicit drug production that have been adopted within the comprehensive framework of the global strategy of the United Nations. The development and implementation of alternative development is primarily the responsibility of the State in which illicit drug cultivation takes place. However, States with illicit drug crops will need continued funding, on the basis of shared responsibility, to support national efforts to eliminate drug crops. Currently, there is insufficient funding for alternative development at the national and international levels.

Action

The success of alternative development programmes depends on the long-term political and financial commitment of both the Governments of the affected countries and the international community to supporting integrated rural development involving local communities, effective enforcement of drug control measures and promotion of awareness among the local population of the negative consequences of drug abuse.

The international community and the relevant United Nations organizations, in particular the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, should assist States in countering illicit drug production by providing adequate financial and technical assistance for alternative development, with the objective of reducing and eliminating illicit drug crops. Such assistance should be provided within the context of the national control strategies of the recipient States. It should be linked to national commitment and the strong political will of States with illicit cultivation to implement the provisions contained in article 14 of the 1988 Convention.

Agencies of the United Nations system and relevant financial institutions should cooperate, within their spheres of competence, in supporting rural development for regions and populations affected by illicit crop cultivation.

International financial institutions and regional development banks should be encouraged to provide financial assistance for alternative development programmes.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme should continue its catalytic role in regard to international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, relevant United Nations organizations and the private sector, and assist interested Governments in approaching such institutions for the purpose of financing and supporting their alternative development programmes and projects.

States are exhorted to agree on bilateral mechanisms for cooperation in order to establish and implement eradication and alternative development projects in their frontier areas.

The international community should attempt to provide greater access to domestic and international markets for alternative development products, with a view to overcoming problems relating to prices and marketing resulting from the substitution of crops cultivated for illicit purposes by production for licit commercial purposes.

Alternative development programmes should be designed for areas that have a potential for adequate drug control and development.

III. Improved and innovative approaches to alternative development

Challenge

Alternative development is an important component of a balanced and comprehensive drug control strategy and is intended to create a supportive environment for the implementation of that strategy. It is intended to promote lawful and sustainable socio-economic options for those communities and population groups that have resorted to illicit cultivation as their only viable means of obtaining a livelihood, contributing in an integrated way to the eradication of poverty. However, cumulative efforts and methods of planning and implementation need further improvement to strengthen the existing processes and to implement new and innovative alternative development programmes.

Action

Alternative development programmes and international cooperation for that purpose should:

Be adapted to the specific legal, social, economic, ecological and cultural conditions prevailing in a given project region;

Contribute to the creation of sustainable social and economic opportunities through integrated rural development, including infrastructure development, that will help to improve the living conditions of the communities and population groups affected by the existence of illicit cultivation;

Contribute to the promotion of democratic values to encourage community participation, and promote social responsibility to develop a civic culture that rejects the illicit cultivation of crops;

Include appropriate demand reduction measures where there is drug abuse in the targeted communities;

Incorporate the gender dimension by ensuring equal conditions for women and men to participate in the development process, including design and implementation;

Observe environmental sustainability criteria, taking into account the objectives of Agenda 21.¹³ Programmes and projects of alternative development are efficient instruments used to avoid any expansion or displacement of illicit cultivation to ecologically fragile areas.

¹³Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigenda), vol. I: Resolutions adopted by the Conference, resolution 1, annex II.

In order to ensure that alternative development is sustainable, participatory approaches that are based on dialogue and persuasion and that include the community as a whole, as well as relevant non-governmental organizations, should be applied in the identification, preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of alternative development. Local communities and public authorities should develop commonly agreed goals and objectives and commit themselves by community-based agreements to reducing illicit crops until they are eliminated.

Institution-building at the regional and local levels should be regarded as a factor that will contribute to improving the level of participation in activities fostered by alternative development.

States should design alternative development programmes, taking into account the regional context. States should cooperate through bilateral, regional and multilateral means to avoid displacement of illicit cultivation from one area, region or country to another.

IV. Enhancing monitoring, evaluation and information-sharing

Challenge

States have often undertaken valiant efforts to eliminate the illicit cultivation of the opium poppy, the coca bush and the cannabis plant. Nevertheless, the potential of such efforts has not been fully exploited because of insufficient information and cooperation at policy and operational levels. Moreover, in recent years, the cultivation and production of illicit drug crops has appeared in other countries, reaching all geographical regions. That trend includes cultivation and production in enclosed premises using new methods and technologies.

Action

Governments in the producing areas should design efficient and accurate monitoring and verification mechanisms using the most efficient, cost-effective and accessible data collection methods available.

Governments should implement follow-up and evaluation systems that will enable them to monitor the qualitative and quantitative impact of alternative development programmes. The sustainability of illicit crop reduction is a most important assessment criterion of alternative development.

Governments should share information on illicit drug crop assessment with the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and reciprocally with other Governments in order to increase cooperation to eliminate such cultivation. Assessments should also include information about the causes and effects of narcotics production, including linkages to other development problems.

States in which the cultivation and production of illicit drug crops has developed in recent years should prepare estimates of the extent of the problem and exchange this information similarly. Those States should consider these factors when formulating and implementing their national plans to tackle the problem of illicit drug crop cultivation and production.

V. The need for law enforcement in controlling illicit crops

Challenge

Even when alternative development projects are successful, some growers and processors are not likely to abandon production voluntarily simply because other opportunities already exist; they must see that there is a risk associated with staying in the illicit cultivation of drug crops.

Action

States with problems of illicit drug crop cultivation should ensure that alternative development programmes are complemented, when necessary, by law enforcement measures:

Law enforcement measures are required as a complement to alternative development programmes in order to tackle other illicit activities such as the operation of illicit drug laboratories, the diversion of precursors, trafficking, money-laundering and related forms of organized crime, both in areas where alternative development programmes are implemented and elsewhere along the trafficking chain;

Comprehensive law enforcement programmes can affect the profitability of illicitly cultivated drug crops and, in so doing, make alternative sources of legal income more competitive and attractive.

When there is organized criminal involvement in illicit drug crop cultivation and drug production, the measures, such as eradication, destruction of illicit drug crops and arrests, called for in the 1961 Convention as amended and the 1988 Convention are particularly appropriate.

In areas where viable alternative sources of income already exist, law enforcement measures are required against persistent illicit cultivation of narcotic crops.

In areas where alternative development programmes have not yet created viable alternative income opportunities, the application of forced eradication might endanger the success of alternative development programmes.

Eradication efforts should utilize available research and ensure that environmentally safe methods are employed.

VI. Follow-up

We request the Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme to report to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as appropriate, taking into account the overall outcome of the twentieth special session of the General Assembly, on the follow-up to the present Action Plan.

United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1019, No. 14956.

See Official Records of the United Nations Conference for the Adoption of a Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Vienna, 25 November-20 December 1988, vol. I (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.94.XI.5).

The term "precursor" is used to indicate any of the substances listed in Table I or Table II of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, except where the context requires a different expression. Such substances are often described as precursors or essential chemicals, depending on their principal chemical properties. The plenipotentiary conference that adopted the 1988 Convention did not use any one term to describe such substances. Instead, the expression "substances frequently used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances" was introduced in the 1988 Convention. It has become common practice, however, to refer to all such substances simply as "precursors"; although that term is not technically correct, it is used in this text for the sake of brevity.

United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 976, No. 14152.

Resolution 45/116, annex.

Resolution 45/117, annex.

Resolution 45/118, annex.

See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1996, Supplement No. 7 (E/1996/27), chap. XIV.

E/CN.7/1997/CRP.12 and Corr.1.

See resolution S-17/2, annex.

See Council of Europe, European Treaty Series, No. 141.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

E

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