NEW YORK, APRIL 5 – With 51 votes over 53 Italy was elected today to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs for the four-year period 2024-2027. Fifty-three members elected by rotation by ECOSOC are part of the Commission. The Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Finland are also part of the newly elected group.
Italy was also elected by consensus to the ECOSOC Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and to the Committee on Programs and Coordination for 2024-2026. The Italian Permanent Mission in New York announced the outcome of the vote on Twitter.
The Commission on Narcotic Drugs was created in 1946 to assist the ECOSOC in supervising the application of the international drug control treaties. In 1991, the General Assembly expanded the mandate of the CND to function as the governing body of UNODC. The CND’s agenda has 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 CND meets annually and adopts a range of decisions and resolutions. Intersessional meetings are regularly convened to provide policy guidance to UNODC. Towards the end of each year, the Commission meets at a reconvened session to consider budgetary and administrative matters as the governing body of the United Nations drug programme.
In 2019, the Commission adopted the Ministerial Declaration on strengthening actions at the national, regional and international levels to accelerate the implementation of joint commitments made to jointly address and counter the world drug problem. In the Declaration, Member States resolved to review in the Commission in 2029 the progress made in implementing the policy commitments, with a mid-term review in 2024. The Commission works on the follow-up to the 2019 Ministerial Declaration, with a view to accelerating the implementation of all international drug policy commitments. (@OnuItalia)
