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Newsletter 3-08 2008/16/10
World Forum Against Drugs 2008
The World Forum against Drugs took place in Stockholm on the 8-10 September. More than 700 participants representing 82 countries attended the 1st World Forum Against Drugs. It was in 1909 in Shanghai, China that the first international meeting about international drug control took place. The main theme of WFAD 2008 was therefore “100 years of drug prevention – how do we move forward?”
IOGT-NTO Sweden was one of eleven organizations that made up the organizing committee. The President of IOGT-NTO Sven-Olov Carlsson held a closing speech where he said: “Human rights cannot be combined with drug abuse. All individuals are entitled to a life free from the harms caused by drugs. Policy makers must defend and protect that right. The interests and rights of the drug user are not looked after through support to continue the use.” He also said that alcohol, tobacco and narcotics have effects on each region in the world and that no country can combat the problems alone.
On the last day of the forum the Declaration of World Forum Against Drugs was signed by eleven organizations. It will be sent to UNGASS 2009, which will be held in Vienna and the goal stated in the declaration is a drug free world. It also addresses the need of balanced programmes of prevention, treatment of addicts and regulations. The declaration also takes a stand against the demands for legalization of narcotics that some groups lobby for. The last section of the declaration addresses the situation for developing countries who needs support in their struggle against cultivation, smuggling and use. Mrs Jennifer N Kimani, of the National Campaign against Drug Abuse authority in Kenya, said after the forum: “Now we know we are not alone in our fight against an escalating abuse in our country. It feels good not to discuss whether a drug free world is possible, but what we must do to get there”.
Continuously individuals and organisations are signing the declaration which supports and is guided by the UN Conventions on Narcotics (1961, 1971 and 1988), the UN Convention on The Rights of the Child and the resolution resulting from the 1998 UNGASS-meeting. The signing of the declaration also marked the start of a global network of organisations united behind the UN Conventions on Narcotics.
Go to www.wfad08.org to read and to put your signature on the declaration.
Source: Drugnews/Sven Liljesson
Translation: Jenny Gustafsson
You can downlead the whole Newsletter below.
 3-2008-web.pdf
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