ASSOCIATION OF WEST INDIES CRICKETERS HONOURED FOR EFFORTS TO PROMOTE DRUG-FREE LIFESYLE

ASSOCIATION OF WEST INDIES CRICKETERS HONOURED FOR EFFORTS

TO PROMOTE DRUG-FREE LIFESYLE

Award Commemorates Work of UN Pioneer, Serge P. Sotiroff

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 27 June (UN Information Service) -- A cricketing organization in the Caribbean -- the West Indies Players' Association -- has received the Serge Sotiroff Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to international drug control efforts.  The award consists of a $1,000 prize and a citation, which were presented at a brief ceremony last evening in Bridgetown (Barbados).

The Association is the Caribbean institution behind the "Cricketers against Drugs" campaign, which promotes signature of a written pledge to lead a drug-free lifestyle.  All the West Indies Association players have signed the pledge and actively promote it.  These athletes take their responsibility as role models for young people seriously, and inspire young people to take up healthy alternatives to drugs.

The award was established to commemorate the outstanding contribution of the late Serge P. Sotiroff in the field of international drug control.  He was a key figure in the preparatory work leading to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1972 Protocol amending the Single Convention.  At the time of his death in 1976, he had spent

30 years in the service of the United Nations.  The Fund was set up by Sotiroff's friends and colleagues and is governed by an independent board made up of United Nations staff members.

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