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OAS Secretary General Presents Achievements in the Americas on the Drug Problem at the United Nations

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, took part today in the High Level United Nations General Assembly Thematic Debate in preparation for the 2016 Special Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the World Drug Problem, in which he highlighted the need for new approaches to address the problem, focused on human rights.

“The Americas are a special case on this issue of drug trafficking,” said Secretary General Insulza. “As our Report on the Drug Problem showed in 2013, all the phases of trafficking, from cultivation to harvest to the final sale to consumers take place in our territories, often with each in a different country. This makes the problem a hemispheric issue and that is why a regional focus can benefit our countries, even in situations in which there are great differences between one country and another,” he said.

The Secretary General emphasized the existing consensus that the policies of previous decades have not achieved the desired results. “We are convinced that drugs are bad; they are harmful to people´s health, and they hurt our citizens, but we are also convinced that the ways in which we have fought drugs hurt them even more. Many more men and women in the Americas have died in the ´War on Drugs´ than have died due to the effects of drug use. That does not mean we want to adopt a permissive attitude on drugs, but it does show the need for a flexible attitude that examines the advisability of reducing substantially the number of people incarcerated because of drugs, that examines the issue of the criminalization of the use of drugs, and that looks into the possibility of alternative penalties, and that seeks above all a focus on human rights,” emphasized the OAS leader.

To address the drug problem from a regional perspective, the leader of the hemispheric institution highlighted the work of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the OAS. The Commission, said the Secretary General, has shaped and reached consensus on hemispheric strategies on drugs “looking to reconcile the interests of our member countries to produce evidence-based policies, develop a focus on public health and prevention in regards to drug consumption, and examine alternatives to incarceration.”

The Secretary General recalled that in 2013 the OAS produced the Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas, which addressed the problem “in a frank and honest manner,” in response to a mandate from the Sixth Summit of the Americas in 2012. Among the concrete results of the Report, the Secretary General made special mention of the following findings: the need to change from a purely repressive focus to one centered on public health; the importance of closely analyzing decriminalization of personal use; the fact that insecurity has a greater impact in societies in which the State is not able to offer effective solutions; the need for a flexible approach that takes into account the differing realities in the Hemisphere; and the fundamental importance of the issues of money and the financing of criminality.

The Secretary General noted that following the presentation of the Report, the OAS held a General Assembly in Antigua, Guatemala that continued the debate and led to the Special General Assembly in Guatemala City in 2014, in which member states adopted the "Resolution of Guatemala" That document, explained Secretary General Insulza, “is particularly focused on the individual and the human aspect of the drug problem.” Moreover, he continued, the Declaration is focused on the use of scientific evidence to develop new policies; urges the strengthening of national health systems and programs of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and social integration; promotes alternatives to incarceration, sentencing reforms, and the reduction of prison overcrowding; requests the CICAD to analyze the impact of the new policies on drugs; promotes international cooperation to address money laundering and the recovery of seized and forfeited assets; and urges the strengthening of international cooperation related to organized crime through exchanges of intelligence and information.

“We hope that this document can be of use not only for the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2016, but also in making the decisions you must make on a daily basis in your countries,” said the Secretary General of the OAS.

The High Level UN General Assembly Thematic Debate includes the participation of ministers of justice and interior; high level officials responsible for drug policy; representatives of international organizations; and representatives of the member countries of the UN. The event looks to bring together concrete measures to promote and strengthen the strategic alliances between the UN and regional and subregional organizations.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-171/15