Wednesday, June 23, 2010

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Traffickling

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

In 1987, the UN General Assembly decided to observe 26 June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse.
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General said " Illicit drugs destroy innumerable individual lives and undermine our societies. Confronting the illicit trade in drugs and its effects remains a major challenge for the international community."
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) leads the international campaign aimed at raising awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society and especially to young people. The mission of this , which runs from 2007 to 2009, is to inspire people and mobilize support for drug control. The international campaign "Do drugs control your life? Your life. Your community. No place for drugs" communicates that the destructive effects of illicit drugs concern us all. Their use destroys the life of all individual and societies. Drugs control the body and mind of individual consumers, the drug crop and drug cartels control farmers, trafficking and crime control communities.

This slogan for the day is thought provoking - 'Do drugs control your life? Your community' - No place for drugs, the slogan reinforces!
Teenagers and young adults are particularly vulnerable to using illicit drugs. The prevalence of drug use among young people is more than twice as high as that among the general population. At this age, peer pressure to experiment with illicit drugs can be strong and self-esteem is often low. Also, those who take drugs tend to be either misinformed or insufficiently aware of the health risks involved.The UNODC campaign reaches out to young people, who often talk about the "highs" induced by illicit drugs but may not be aware of the many "lows". Illicit drug use is a concern because it poses a threat to theirhealth. Negative effects vary depending on the type of drug consumed, the doses taken and the frequency of use. All illicit drugs have immediate physical effects, but they can also severely hinder psychological and emotional development, especially among young people.

What we have to do

Leading a healthy lifestyle requires making choices that are respectful of body and mind. To make these choices, young people need guidance from role models and need to get the facts about drug use. The international campaign provides young people and others with tools to educate themselves about the health risks associated with illicit drug use.The UNODC campaign focuses only on drugs under international control. These are drugs Member States have decided to limit exclusively to medical and scientific purposes, given the adverse effects their abuse and trafficking have on health and society. These illicit drugs include amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), coca/cocaine, cannabis, hallucinogens, opiates, and sedative hypnotics.

Human trafficking


Human trafficking is the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.Smuggling migrants involves the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a State of which that person is not a national or resident.Virtually every country in the world is affected by these crimes. The challenge for all countries, rich and poor, is to target the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants, many of whom endure unimaginable hardships in their bid for a better life.
As the only United Nations entity focusing on the criminal justice element of these crimes, the work that UNODC does to combat human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants is underpinned by the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling.


Contribution of the countries


The government of Japan contributed a grant of 7.000.000$ for the execution of UONDC activities in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries.
Denmark pledged the amount of 5.000.000 DKK (905.469$) for the UNODC General Purpose Fund.
Canada pledged the amount of 2.970.893 CAD (2.786.954$) for the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program in Latin America and the Caribbean.
EC pledged 780.000€ for a programme support to the trial and treatment of piracy suspect in Seychelles.
UK/DICD pledged 210.000 pounds on Legal Advisory Programme in Colombia. UK/DIFD pledged 145.000 pounds for a project directed at fostering partnership with civil society on Drugs and Crime Prevention
Voluntary contributions to the activities of UNODC are provided by governments, consisting of major and emerging and national donors, UN Agencies, Inter-Governmental Organizations, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and private donors, including private sector entities and foundations.

Voluntary donor contributions comprise two types:
General-purpose funds (GP), i.e. unearmarked voluntary contributions which finance UNODC's executive direction and management; Special-purpose funds (SP), which are earmarked voluntary contributions to finance UNODC's technical cooperation and other substantive activities at Headquarters (Vienna) and in the field.
In 2009, actual voluntary contributions for both drugs and crime programmes were pledged to an amount of US$ 215.2 million which represents a decrease of 17 per cent compared to last year (2008:US$ 260.3 million).


The distribution of the funding was as follows:
Earmarked or special purpose funding - US$ 204.1 million (94.8 per cent) Un-earmarked or general purpose funding - US$ 11.1 million (5.2 per cent) In terms of type of activity, the funding distribution between drugs and crime programmes was as follows:
Drugs Programme - US$ 137.6 million (64 per cent, compared with 74 per cent in 2008) Crime Fund - US$ 77.6 million (36 per cent, compared with 26 per cent in 2008) Illicit Drug Trafficking is a global problem. It has certainly ‘graduated’ from being an ‘American malady’ to a
global nuisance.

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