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SHELTER DON BOSCO AT UN CONSULTATION ON DRUG POLICY
JANUARY 15, 2008: Shelter Don Bosco, Mumbai, India and two other NGOs were nominated as Regional Lead Organization (RLOs) for the UN Regional Consultation from the South Asian Region for the “Beyond 2008 World Drug Forum” held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 8-9, 2008. The aim of this consultation was to gather views and experiences of NGOs working in the field of Drug abuse in the South Asian Region and provide regional inputs to the “Beyond 2008 World Drug Forum” – a planned review and reflection on achievement since the 1998 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS), which encourages NGOs to contribute their own perspectives to global drug policy and international initiatives. Fr. Barnabe D’souza sdb and Ms. Novella Corda, as one of the main organizers of the event, facilitated discussions on the emerging drug trends in the region, NGO involvement and future drug policy measures from a regional perspective. 40 reputed NGOs with vast experience and expertise from different counties of South Asia such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and India participated in the consultation at Dhaka.
The Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs (VNGOC) that provides a vital link between NGOs, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and UNODC, nominated Shelter Don Bosco, Mumbai, India along with two other NGOs from the region as Regional Lead Organization (RLOs) for South Asia. The three organizations were selected based on their significant presence and vast experience in the region. The RLOs were assigned the task of coordinating the Consultation for the South Asian region. In addition, Shelter Don Bosco was responsible for selecting and inviting representatives among the 100 plus Asian NGOs for the consultation meeting at Dhaka.
The South Asian regional Consultation was part of a series of nine regional consultations being held in nine regions of the world, namely, Australia and New Zealand; Eastern Europe and Central Asia; the European Union and the European Free Trade Association; Latin America and the Caribbean; North Africa and the Middle East; North America; South Asia; Southeast and East Asia; and the Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa. Each regional consultation is intended to elicit experience and ideas from NGOs active in the respective regions which will be collated and presented in Vienna in July 2008. The unified NGO contribution to the UNGASS review will be submitted to the CND and UNODC to aid examination of progress in meeting the targets set in 1998, to develop more effective partnerships for the future and to propose high order principles as a guide for future deliberations on drug control.
These regional consultations help in fostering NGO collaborations within the region and help develop new and improved arrangements for engaging civil society in the planning of future policies, strategies and practice in response to drug related problems. (BIS News)
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