The Shri Ram School Aravali Round Square Model United Nations 2017 COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS BACKGROUND GUIDE

Transcription

1 The Shri Ram School Aravali Round Square Model United Nations 2017 COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS BACKGROUND GUIDE

2 Table of Contents 1. Letter from the Executive Board 2. Research Tips 3. Position Paper Guidelines 4. Introduction: Global Scenario 5. Drug Cartels 6. Drug Routes 7. Overview of illicit drug trade in Latin America 8. International framework 9. Guiding Questions 10. Links which will help you with research

3 Letter from the Executive Board Dear Delegates, Welcome to the simulation of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at Aravali RSMUN, 2017.We, the Executive Board, chose this committee because it directly deals with the overarching problems of human rights, health, development, smuggling and more that evolve with the issue of drug abuse. The agenda at hand seeks to solve the same issues, by focusing on a particular geographical region that has seen more than its fair share of drug violence- South America. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has been pivotal to addressing issues like the illegal trafficking and abuse of various drugs on an international scale, and we hope that debate will be fruitful and yield interesting and comprehensive solutions to the agenda at hand. We would like to inform you that this particular session of the CND is being convened in Vienna, Austria from September 25th, To help you with the above, this background guide provides a brief overview of important issues linked to the agenda, which should provide you with pertinent topics with which to begin your research. It also contains guidelines to help you write your position papers. However, it is important to note that this guide is simply a starting point and cannot, under any circumstances, serve as the only source of your research. Research beyond this guide is extremely important. Feel free to us at any point of time. Regards, Chairpersons: Vikhyat Vij(vikhyat.vij@gmail.com) and Paranjay Sahanii(paranjaysahanii@gmail.com) Directors: Anisha Drall(anishadrall@gmail.com) and Angad Vir Singh(angadvirsingh2000@gmail.com) Rapporteur: Samridhi Sahgal(samridhi.sahgal@gmail.com) Research Tips 1. Prepare a research binder. You will feel better in committee knowing that your research is at your fingertips. A ready-to-access research binder is a life-saver in case you get lost when different topics, acronyms, agencies and previous solutions are mentioned. 2. Researching a country: It is very difficult to formulate a

4 policy, both in written form (Policy Statement and Resolution) and in spoken form (Lobbying, Opening Speech and Debating) without knowing about the country or organization represented and having specific knowledge of the issues to be debated(in this case it is illicit drug trade in Latin America). Research of the country should include the following: 1. Political Structure (origin, type of government, stability) 2. Cultural Factors (ethnic groups, religion, cultural history) which may lead to an increase of drug cartels 3. Geography (bordering countries, topography, geo-political considerations) and porous borders. 4. Economy (monetary system, dependency and debt, membership in trade organizations) which may get affected by drug trade. 5. Natural Resources (basic commodities, trade agreements, degree of self-sufficiency) which may be used by drug cartels. 6. Defense (military structure, dependency on other nations, membership or alliances). 7. Views on other World Problems (role and influence in the world, membership in blocs) 8. History (general, last 50 years, recent history). 9. Drug Related activities which have happened in your nation. 10. Influence of Drug Cartels in your regions. Position Paper Guidelines Position papers are of utmost importance as they allow the Executive Board to roughly understand each delegates' views on the agenda. The following guidelines should be adhered to in order to write an effective paper that insightfully deals with the agenda at hand: 1. Begin the 1st paragraph with a brief history of the topic to introduce the conflict/issue in your words. Write about how your country is directly related to the agenda, if it is, and why you think the conflict/issue emerged to begin with. 2. Expand your body to talk about the current situation and what your country plans to do about it. This is a good place to include any statistics and specific scenarios that may be

5 critical to the agenda. Write about the various aspects of the issue that need to be dealt with and how these have impacted people. 3. The 3rd paragraph or section is by far the most important section because it allows delegates to introduce solutions to combat the problems. Be creative, but at the same time, realistic. The position papers need to be submitted on the opening day of the conference. Overview of the CND The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) was established by Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution 9(I) in 1946, to assist the ECOSOC in supervising the application of international drug control treaties. In 1991, the General Assembly (GA) expanded the mandate of the CND to enable it to function as the governing body of the UNODC. ECOSOC resolution1999/30 requested the CND to structure its agenda with two distinct segments: a normative segment for discharging treaty-based and normative functions; and an operational segment for exercising the role as the governing body of UNODC. The Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation Toward an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem of 2009 is the main policy document of the United Nations guiding action by the international community in this field. It reaffirms the principle role played by the CND as one of the United Nations organs with prime responsibility for drug control matters. In line with its mandate, the CND monitors the world drug situation, develops strategies on international drug control and recommends measures to address the world drug problem. The Commission adopted at the High Level Review in March 2014 the Joint Ministerial Statement, which identifies achievements, challenges and priorities for further action. In the Political Declaration and Plan of Action of 2009, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs recommended that the General Assembly hold a Special Session on the World Drug Problem. The CND led the preparations for the General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in 2016 and negotiated the outcome document. The Commission works on the follow-up to the UNGASS, implementing the recommendations made in the outcome document, on the way to the target date of the Political Declaration and Plan of Action in The CND meets annually when it considers and adopts a range of decisions and resolutions. Intersessional meetings of the CND are regularly convened to provide policy guidance to UNODC. Towards the end of each year, the CND meets at a reconvened session to consider budgetary and administrative matters as the governing body of the United Nations drug programme. Introduction: Global Scenario

6 The production, trafficking, and consumption of illicit drugs can be both a result of conflict, as well as a cause. Historically, the majority of illicit drug crops are cultivated in countries characterized by civil wars, conflict, instability, and violence. It is easier for criminal groups to produce drugs in areas where the basic political framework is insufficient and a weak government and the national forces have limited control. This in turn can lead to the financing of conflict, and further prolong the conflict itself, as the struggle for control over the profit from the drug trade often turns violent. The three major areas of drug production and illicit drug trade are- 1. Centre and South America 2. Golden Triangle which consists of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar 3. Golden Crescent which consists of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan Drug trafficking, as a component of broader transnational organized crime, is a serious issue in Central America, Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent, affecting numerous states both in and beyond the region and having severe repercussions for political, economic, and human security. Globally, some 210 million people, between the ages of years, use illicit drugs each year. The total number of illicit drug users has increased since the late 1990s, but the frequency rates have remained largely stable, as has the number of problem drug users, which is estimated at between 15 and 39 million. The consumption of illicit drugs is rapidly spreading across the world, mainly in Canada, the US, and Eastern Europe. The latter has experienced increased drug demand due to high unemployment rates and facilitated movement in the European Union. In recent years, drug consumption within the Central and South American region has grown. Several European countries have since relaxed their laws (or law enforcement) about possession offences, sometimes just for cannabis. But other European countries continue with a predominantly prohibitionist legal system. Sweden claims to have achieved relatively low levels of drug use with a firm prohibitionist approach, which includes compulsory treatment of drug users, and considerable public resourcing of drug rehabilitation and education programs, after an earlier period of liberalization. Drug Cartels Most of the drug production and trafficking networks in Latin America (Mexico and Colombia) are controlled by criminal organizations or drug cartels. Most of them are structured like transnational organizations, whose motive is profit rather than ideology: each year, billions of dollars in profits are made by the cartels. But this has a cost, as their actions usually breed violence and leave deaths behind them in their countries of operation. These cartels have deep roots in the country s social and economic hierarchy. Nowadays, cartels have started to act in coordination with other types of criminal organizations (such as national mafias) in order to get arms or to organize the drug traffic.

7 The origin of all Mexican drug cartels is traced to former Mexican Judicial Federal Police agent Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo ("The Godfather"), who founded the Guadalajara Cartel in 1980 and controlled all illegal drug trade in Mexico and the trafficking corridors across the Mexico-USA border throughout the 1980s (first with marijuana and opium). He was the first Mexican drug chief to link up with Colombia's cocaine cartels in the 1980s. Colombia s role in the international drug trade has evolved in the last decades. Since the early 1980s, drug traffickers, together with landowners and local military commanders, have formed paramilitary organizations to clean their territory of guerrillas and alleged guerrilla sympathizers and to protect land, cattle, and cocaine laboratories and strategic shipping routes. Guerrilla groups such as the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) have grown active in areas of increasing coca cultivation and have started to finance their activities by taxing coca crops and by protecting drug processing labs and other illicit installations. Therefore the situation in Colombia is one of the hardest to solve as it is a two-front war. The UN s 2016 General Assembly Special Session on Drugs collectively endorsed anti-drug policies from Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, in the hopes that stricter regulation will make smuggling and drug related violence more difficult to enact. However, several UN NGOs, including UN Aids, UN Women, and UNHCR have begun to condemn the push for the prohibition of drugs, claiming that this only provides incentive for illegal, black market trafficking and smuggling. Though divided on ways in which to do so, the United Nations firmly believes that Mexican drug cartels, and all drug cartels for that matter, must be stopped. Drug Routes The composition and spread of illicit drug use varies across country borders and drug types. Abuse of cannabis (marijuana) is particularly rampant in Western Europe and Central America. Despite the greater prevalence of drug abuse in certain countries over others, every member country of the UNODC has a role to play in combatting the spread of the substance. This is largely due to the role of drug routes, which are patterns of geographic drug flow. These indicate the role of illicit drug traffickers in each country as one or more of the following- a producer of narcotic materials, a processor of the chemical and narcotic materials, a distributor of the illicit drugs, or a consumer of the final drug products. The two regions with highest narcotic material production are Latin America (including countries such as Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, etc) and central South Asia (including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam,etc.). The presence of opiates is highest in Eastern Europe and Russia, while cocaine abuse is rampant in North America. Even countries that are not major drug producers may serve as transit countries through which drugs are trafficked but not consumed. History of Drug Trafficking in Central and South America The countries that produce some of the largest quantities of cocaine, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, are located in South America. Colombia, in particular, began producing large quantities of

8 marijuana in the early 1900s, but it was the US cultural revolution of the 1960s that enabled Colombian drug producers to find large, demand-driven markets for their supply of marijuana. By the 1970s, cocaine had become the drug of choice for the US illicit substance market, and Colombia was its main supplier. Internationally, the temperance movement, which had begun in the late eighteenth century, gained prominence in the late nineteenth century, advocating the legal prohibition of alcohol and other drugs. The temperance movement argued against drug and alcohol use on the grounds that it was morally irresponsible and caused violence, indolence, poverty and social decay. Influenced by temperance activists, US President Theodore Roosevelt convened an international opium conference in Shanghai in 1909, which was followed by another conference in The Hague in 1911, which led to the International Opium Convention. This convention became the foundation for later international treaties and conventions on drug use. The 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act banned the production and sale of opiates and cocaine in the United States, the first prohibitionist legislation (although in form it was a revenue act, requiring the registration of, and payment of special taxes by, producers, distributors and suppliers of opiates and cocaine). In practice, it led to the arrest of thousands of doctors, pharmacists and addicts. The Harrison Act did not explicitly prohibit the prescription of heroin for medical purposes, but in 1919 the US Supreme Court ruled that the prescription of narcotics was a violation of the 'good faith practice of medicine', and therefore a criminal offence under the Act. Overview of Illicit Drug Trade in Latin America The drug trade is the singular issue that links the myriad of challenges facing the region, contributing to ongoing violence in Mexico and Colombia. Further, the transit of illicit trade has had devastating consequences for Central America, including spikes in violent crime, drug use and the corroding of government institutions, in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. As can be seen in the case of cocaine, the majority of the world s supply of cocaine is produced in South America, trafficked through Central America, and consumed in the United States. To be more specific, an estimated 90% of the cocaine traveling into the US is routed through Central America and Mexico. This supply chain has led to increased acts of violence, armed conflict, and terrorist activities, fuelled by the direct involvement of the armed rebel forces, which earns up to $300 million per year as a direct result of the refinement and trafficking of cocaine. In order to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by countries in Central and South America, it is essential to understand the growth and complexity of drug trafficking organizations in the region. The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) (2000), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly pursuant to Resolution 55/25 of November 15, 2000, defines a transnational criminal network as, a structured group of three or more persons that exists over a period of time, the members of

9 which act in concert aiming at the commission of serious crimes in order to obtain a direct or indirect financial or other material benefit. Transnational criminal networks are also referred to as drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). In spite of the gravity of the problem, the region has had little regional or international cooperation to combat it. Efforts to create systems of coordination between states, regional organizations and the international community have not been successful, signalling the urgency of identifying opportunities for improving policy and programs at a local, regional, and international level in order to reverse and end the undermining effect of drugs on development, peace, security, and stability in the region. International framework Drug trade and trafficking is an important topic within the United Nations, across many committees, including the General Assembly and Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Member States have, when discussing the issue, expressed their concern regarding the growth of drug cartels, and the negative impact the related crime and violence has on the stability of developing countries in Central America and West Africa. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the lead agency within the UN system on drug control. The mandate of the UNODC is to support Member States in the prevention of illicit drugs, crime, and terrorism. The Office provides comprehensive assessments of the global drug problem and publishes an annual evaluation on the international drug trade with the publication of the World Drug Report. UNODC also promotes research and studies of new and emerging forms of crime in collaboration with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). There are three United Nations conventions on the subject of drugs. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961) was adopted and open for signature on March 30, 1961, and focuses primarily on the issue of drug abuse. It also created a framework for international drug control by forming the criteria that countries should follow with regard to drug policy. The second drugrelated convention, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971) was created as a response to the growing variety of drugs that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Lysergic acid diethylamide (commonly known as LSD) and amphetamines. Finally, the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988) is aimed at effectively tackling the issue of drug trafficking. It provides important countermeasures to halt drug trafficking such as how to control precursors (substances that are not dangerous in and of themselves but are used in the production of illicit drugs) and how to combat money laundering. These conventions are nearly universal, as over 180 countries have signed and ratified all three of them. Due to the controversial nature of this subject for many Member States, such vast support is an impressive achievement and indicates the global nature of this problem. In spite of this, the international drug control system and the associated international frameworks have

10 their critics, citing the unforeseen, negative impact of the implementation of relevant conventions on illicit drugs on the formation of black markets. Guiding Questions 1. Is your nation involved with either the production or trafficking of drugs? 2. What does your nation feel is the most accurate way to combat drug trafficking? 3. Has your nation previously taken actions towards the topic? Have they been successful? Why not? 4. Has your nation benefitted from any specific solution to deal with the drug trafficking throughout the world? 5. Is your nation willing to present a national force in order to combat drug trafficking? 6. How can the international community work to stop or undermine the influence and power of various drug cartelsand organized crime syndicates? 7. Does your nation believe in the legalization of drugs to alleviate some of the violence problems relating to drug trafficking? 8. What should your country do to stop drug imports? 9. Should pre-emptive measures be considered over negotiations? 10. What economical aspects in your nation or others prevent you from effectively carrying out a specific solution? 11. How heavily does your nation or others depend on foreign investments and loans? And how will this affect the efficiency of your solutions? 12. Are your solutions feasible in a variety of nations, or are they limited to the economic or social status of a country? 13. Where will funding come from? 14. Why are your solutions different than those that have been presented in the past? Why is it better? Links which will help you with research AFET_ET(2012)457107_EN.pdf