HAMID GHODSE OF IRAN RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD

HAMID GHODSE OF IRAN RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT

OF INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 21 May (UN Information Service) -- Prof. Hamid Ghodse, an international drug control expert from Iran and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of London, was re-elected as the President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) as it began its 71st session here today.

Prof. Ghodse has been a member of the INCB since 1992 and was elected President of the Board in 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2000.  He is a distinguished practictioner in psychiatry, substance misuse and addiction, and has served as a director for a number of addiction treatment and research bodies in the United Kingdom.  He is the author of over 250 scientific papers on drug-related issues and addiction and an editor of several scientific periodicals.  He is also an expert and advisor for a number of international forums and a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence.

Also elected were Mr. Chinmay Chakrabarty of India, First Vice-President; Ms. Nelia P. Cortes-Maramba of the Philippines, Second Vice-President and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Estimates; and Philip O. Emafo of Nigeria, Rapporteur.  The officers are elected by the Board to serve a one-year term, ending on the first day of the Board's May 2002 session.

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