INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OF DRUG CONTROL TREATIES, 10 TO 21 MAY

Press Release
SOC/NAR/801

INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OF DRUG CONTROL TREATIES, 10 TO 21 MAY

VIENNA, 7 May (UN Information Service) -- Steps governments have taken to implement international drug control treaties over the past six months will be the main focus of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) at its upcoming session, which begins here on Monday, 10 May.

During the current two-week session, the Board will also be discussing key issues to be covered by its annual report for 1999. Special attention will be given to the availability of a large variety of pharmaceuticals containing internationally controlled substances, which are needed for medical and scientific purposes in various countries around the world. The Board has been concerned about unexplained differences between countries in the medical availability of such drugs -- to relieve pain, for example, or to treat a wide range of mental disorders.

The Board will also make confidential, country-level drug control assessments, as it reviews missions it has conducted since its last session in November 1998. Those missions included visits to Cameroon, France, Guatemala, Iran, Italy, Kenya, Libya and Mauritania.

The Board, a 13-member independent body established in 1968 as a quasi-judicial organ of the United Nations, is mandated to monitor the compliance of governments with the three main international drug control treaties -- the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Its members are elected by the Economic and Social Council to serve in their individual capacities and its meetings are held in private.

Membership

The 13 members of the INCB are: Edouard Babayan (Russian Federation); C. Chakrabarty (India); Nelia P. Cortes-Maramba (Philippines); Jacques Franquet (France); Hamid Ghodse (Iran); Dil Jan Khan (Pakistan); A. Lourenço Martins (Portugal); Mohamed Mansour (Egypt); Herbert S. Okun (United States); Alfredo Pemjean (Chile); Oskar Schröder (Germany); Elba Torres Graterol (Venezuela); and Sergio Uribe Ramirez (Colombia).

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