Werner Sipp speaking at ECOSOC

The President of the INCB, Mr Werner Sipp, presented the Annual Report of the INCB for 2014 to the ECOSOC Coordination and Management on 22nd July 2015. It is the 46th Report since the INCB was established in 1968. Mr Sipp told delegates that he regarded the Report as a contribution to the UNGASS debates on the ‘right way’ for drug policies.

Mr Sipp reminded ECOSOC that the Board has, in its last two Annual Reports, encouraged states to consider the abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offences. He also drew attention once again to the fact that the international drug control conventions do not require the criminalisation of drug consumption. In general, his presentation stressed the health-oriented elements of the treaties.

Although the president denied that the international drug control architecture is a fundamentally prohibitive system, he did acknowledge that many countries do not comply with the health, welfare, proportionality and human rights elements it contains, and the responsibility to ensure that adequate supplies of drugs for medical and scientific purposes is often not met – though it should be added that it is the Board itself, in partnership with member states, that must ensure these needs are met.

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Thumbnail INCB President Werner Sipp