Statement of Hungary at the 49th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs
Vienna, 15th March 2006
Agenda item 5: Drug Demand Reduction
Thank you Mr. Chairman/Madame Chairperson
Since this is the first time my delegation takes the floor, allow me to extend our sincere congratulations to You and other members of the Bureau upon your election. You may rest assured of our full support. We fully associate ourselves with the statement of Austria made on behalf of the EU on this agenda item.
At the outset, let me recall paragraphs 2 and 12 of the Political Declaration which both recognize that action against the world drug problem is a common and shared responsibility requiring an integrated and balanced approach that involves civil society, including non-governmental organizations”. We also share the opinion with high priority that „the important role is taking into account that can be played by non-governmental organizations in contributing to accurate assessments of the drug problem, the identification of viable solutions and the formulation and implementation of appropriate programmes and policies, as envisaged by the Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Outline of Future Activities in Drug Abuse Control adopted in 1987 and the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Demand Reduction adopted at the twentieth special session of the General assembly”.
The document, Hungarian National Strategy to Combat the Drug Problem that was passed by the Hungarian Government in 2000 lays great emphasis on the necessity of the professional and social cooperation on a local level. Namely, the conviction of the Strategy is that the interventions of the state alone and isolated are inefficient in the course of the treatment of such a social phenomenon which roots stem from the fundamental functioning of the same society. The interventions of the state are alone, without the maximalization of the social co-operations inadequate. I would like to inform you, that the Hungarian National Strategy supports this approach to such an extent that – apart from establishing the mandatory pillars of prevention, treatment, care and supply-reduction – it worded local co-operation and community based approach as its first pillar. This wording goes as follows: Society should become sensitive to the efficient management of the drug issues, and local communities should improve their problem solving capabilities in countering the drug problem (community, co-operation).
Accordingly this approach necessitates the aforementioned community based method concerning the act of strategy-build-up as opposed to the dominance of deceison-makers’ demands. Only an all-in program based on consecutive and interconnected goals is able to minimize individual and social damage and to maximize the efficiency of the itrventions, institutions responsible for treatment care, and social co-operations.
Beyond that, a crucial condition of efficiency is taking subsidiarity seriously, in other words drug-policy should in each case find the most efficient interventional level, which is underpinned by local and national social consent, if possible. In this sense the Hungarian Drug Strategy treats community based approach not only as a pillar, but as an overall, cross cutting approach as well.
Thus, the maxim of community based drug-policy is partnership and collective action. It builds on the one hand upon the co-operation of social and state organisations and on the other hand it relies on the activity of the local communities. It recognises, that the effect of align and collective actions is multiplied in all cases, but especially in the case of supply-reduction. Only a policy which manages society as a context, and takes the culture of co-operation at local, national and international level into account can be efficient. It follows, that an utmost group of citizens and their communities, civil organisations and state and local governmental institutions should be taken into drug-policy configuration. The vehicles for this act are the successfully established and well functioning Co-ordination Fora on Druga.
Mr. Chairman/ Madame Chairperson
In conjunction, we would like to make clear our particular perspective. It is not only drug-policy configuration which the civil-professional level should be taken into, but also its evaluation of implementation. At the same time the process of measurement should be depoliticized. Hungary made an attempt to this, when an independent third-party was asked to externally evaluate the implementation of the strategy. The project ‘Evaluation of the implementation of the national strategy to combat drugs’ is the result of an agreement of the Hungarian Coordination Committee on Drug Affairs to evaluate the National strategy to Combat Drugs. This evaluation is focusing on the mid-term results of the drug strategy and will result in a report with a set of recommendations. Besides evaluating the strategy, the project also aims at reflecting on how to strengthen the existing coordination structure in the field of drug policy in Hungary. The evaluation of the Hungarian Drug Strategy by a third party is unique, not only in Europe.
Hungary suggests that – taken into consideration the Hungarian experiences of the MATRA-PSO Project Evaluation of the Hungarian National Drug Strategy modell-project – the Member States should evaluate the implementation of their national drug strategy and how these strategies adapt the aims of the political Declaration adopted by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session, devoting to countering the world drug problem together with the involvement of independent and scientific experts. We also suggest CND making a decision, according to which the UNODC together with the relevant EU bodies should work-out a model-program and submit it to the Member States. “CND” should also find a solution for warranting financial background for the evaluation of national programs for countries that out of their own national budget would not be able to do this. According to our comment the Member States should inform the CND about the results of these evaluations in order to make it able to summarize the achieved outcomes.
Mr. Chairman/Madame Chairperson
To conclude, we would like to emphasise that drug-policies built upon community-based approach and their independent evaluation could be an effective move towards the goals formulated in the political declarations.
Thank you for your attention!