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UN Common Position on Drug Policy - Consolidating System-Wide Coherence

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UN Common Position on Drug Policy - Consolidating System-Wide Coherence Briefing paper December 2019 UN Common Position on drug policy - Consolidating system-wide coherence By Martin Jelsma1 Key points / Executive summary approach the drugs issue from health, sustainable development, human rights, and peacebuilding per- • Achieving more UN system-wide coherence and spectives, and to promote UN system-wide coher- alignment with the overarching Sustainable De- ence with respect to global drug control strategies. velopment Goals (SDG) framework has been a particularly difficult challenge in the area of • The UN System Common Position on drug policy, drug policy. adopted in November 2018 by the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), commits • From the very start, Member States recognised to ‘supporting Member States in developing and the risk that discrepancies within the UN system implementing truly balanced, comprehensive, in- might appear, which was the reason why the Eco- tegrated, evidence-based, human rights-based, nomic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1946 man- development-oriented, and sustainable responses dated the UN Secretary-General to establish a co- to the world drug problem, within the framework ordination mechanism. of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’. • Early attempts to strengthen inter-agency collab- • The Common Position is based on a strong man- oration in the 1990s failed, resulting in a Vienna date given by the General Assembly to the CEB and drugs and crime monopoly and a siloed culture the Secretary-General to improve UN system-wide that was only broken with the 2016 UN General coherence, and incorporates many elements from Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. the 2016 UNGASS, the SDG framework and human • Due to the escalation of the ‘war on drugs’ in rights instruments that have all been adopted by the 1990s, UN entities focused on health, human Member States. rights, peacebuilding and development distanced • The Vienna consensus is broken, tensions are on themselves from the increasingly controversial the rise and contradictions are becoming more drug control agenda and the hardening debate in apparent between certain drug control practices Vienna; or – in the case of the World Health Organ- and the overarching aims of health promotion, ization (WHO) – were arm-wrestled into silence. social justice, sustainable development, human • The General Assembly provided all UN agen- rights protection and peacebuilding – some of cies with a clear mandate, deciding in Resolution which are rooted in incompatible objectives be- 69/201 that the 2016 UNGASS ‘shall have an inclu- tween the UN drug control system and the UN sive preparatory process that includes extensive human rights regime. substantive consultations, allowing organs, enti- • The UN Common Position and the Task Team are ties and specialized agencies of the United Nations hard-won achievements that provide unprece- system, relevant international and regional organ- dented authoritative guidance for UN entities and izations, civil society and other relevant stakehold- can help guide the current international drug con- ers to fully contribute to the process’. trol system into the 21st century, on the ground • The UNGASS process was an opportunity to wid- through the new resident coordinator system and en the discussion and include UN entities that at global level to overcome the siloed approach. 1 • Member States need to support the work of the Task Team, promote the inclusion of drug-related ‘A new system-wide culture must emerge, based issues on the agenda of other UN forums, including on systematic policy consultations, effective the General Assembly, ECOSOC, the World Health decentralization, full respect of each other’s Assembly (WHA) and the Human Rights Council mandates and competencies, and a common (HRC); and ensure that all relevant UN entities – appreciation of the challenges ahead and of the including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNO- respective strengths of the various organizations 7 DC) – actively promote the UN Common Position. of the system in meeting them’. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 1997. Introduction ‘The United Nations system [has] a critical role In November 2018, the UN System CEB adopted the to play as knowledge broker to help Member ‘UN system common position supporting the imple- States in better assessing the risks and benefits mentation of the international drug control policy of various approaches to drug problems and in through effective inter-agency collaboration’ (see An- pursuing science-based and evidence-based pol- nex 1), expressing the shared drug policy principles of icy decisions for the effective implementation of all UN organisations and committing them to speak comprehensive and integrated measures’.8 2 with one voice. The CEB is the highest-level coordi- UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 2018. nation forum of the UN system, convening biannual meetings of the heads of all UN agencies, programmes can make an even more effective contribution to the and related institutions, chaired by the UN Secre- achievement of the internationally agreed develop- tary-General.3 The CEB’s mandate dates back to the ment goals, including the Millennium Development early days of the formation of the UN system, when Goals’.9 In response, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ECOSOC in 1946 requested the UN Secretary-General set up the High-level Panel on UN System-wide Co- to establish a standing committee to coordinate the herence, which published its report with recommen- activities of the multiple specialised entities of the UN dations in November 2006 under the title ‘Delivery as system.4 The resolution led to the establishment of One’, focusing on the areas of development, human- the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), itarian assistance and the environment. The work of the predecessor of today’s CEB. the UN ‘is often fragmented and weak’ and, according The 2000 Millennium Summit represented the first to the Panel: ‘Inefficient and ineffective governance significant streamlining of inter-agency structures, and unpredictable funding have contributed to policy away from individual programme areas, and focus- incoherence, duplication and operational ineffective- ing on cross-sectoral policy objectives, such as sus- ness across the system. Cooperation between organi- tainable development and gender mainstreaming. zations has been hindered by competition for funding, It marked ‘the beginning of a new phase, where the mission creep and by outdated business practices’.10 organizations of the system now have, in the United The Panel also called on the CEB to review its func- Nations Millennium Declaration, a single overarching tions ‘with a view to improving its performance and policy framework, to which they are individually and accountability for system-wide coherence’, because collectively committed’.5 The CEB, the new name giv- although the CEB ‘has led to some improvement in in- en to the ACC in 2001, ‘intended to reflect this new ter-agency coordination […] the Board’s potential has state of play and this collective commitment’: ‘The been underexploited and its decision-making role has expression “Chief ExecutivesBoard ” rather than Com- been underused’.11 mitteeis meant to reflect the transition from a collec- The transition from the ‘Millennium’ to the ‘Sustain- tion of organizations that come together to “compare able’ Development Goals in 2015 was accompanied notes”, to a collegial body whose participants share a by a policy review of operational activities for devel- collective responsibility for nurturing the new reality opment in the UN system, because ‘the integrated that the system has come to represent’.6 nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Develop- The subsequent 2005 World Summit Outcome Docu- ment requires a United Nations development system ment called for ‘stronger system-wide coherence’ by that works in a coordinated and coherent manner’.12 strengthening linkages between the normative work The General Assembly also requested the UN Sec- of the UN system and its operational activities, and retary-General to present proposals to improve the invited the UN Secretary-General ‘to launch work to collective support of the UN development system for further strengthen the management and coordination the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, including of United Nations operational activities so that they through a more robust Resident Coordinator system.13 2 Referring to the Secretary-General’s ‘overall vision to ensure that the Common Position does not simply re- focus on root causes and the prevention of crises and main a piece of paper, a UN system coordination Task vulnerabilities across all pillars’, Deputy Secretary-Gen- Team has been established to ensure that coherent ef- eral Amina Mohammed ‘emphasized that tangible re- forts are undertaken to realise its commitments,16 and sults achieved on the ground benefitting the people it will serve as an authoritative policy directive to UN that the United Nations system served would be the Resident Coordinators for implementing drug-related true test of the reform efforts’.14 She underscored that programmes on the ground and assisting Member the UN system ‘would have to embrace change in or- States in policy development. der to live up to the ambition set by Member States through the 2030 Agenda and other commitments’ Achieving more system-wide coherence under the and that ‘a common understanding of the direction of banner of ‘Delivering as One’ or ‘One UN’, and aligning change was emerging towards a better coordinated, with the overarching SDG framework has been a par- integrated and coherent country presence, with real ticularly difficult challenge in the area of drug policy. accountability for system-wide results’.15 This briefing paper reconstructs the long and troubled process that led to the adoption of this ground-break- Within this broader UN reform context, and following ing UN System Common Position. up on the outcomes of the 2016 UNGASS, the drugs issue came to the agenda of the CEB as one of the The 1990s: UN coordination on cross-cutting issues for which a more coherent ap- proach needed to be developed.
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