Updated June 7, 2001
Second Summit of the Americas
PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF THE ILLICIT CONSUMPTION OF AND TRAFFICKING IN NARCOTICS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES AND RELATED CRIMES
Under the initiative on this topic, contained in the Santiago Plan of Action, Governments agreed to:
Inter-Governmental Working Group on the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism
Following the Santiago Summit, CICAD organized the first meeting of government experts, from May 4 to 6, 1998, to develop and negotiate the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) as called for by the Heads of State and Government. At that meeting, member states of CICAD decided to set up an Inter-Governmental Working Group, in the framework of CICAD, to work out the details of the Mechanism. It set a regular schedule of meetings, and decided to present regular reports, through the Permanent Council, to the OAS General Assembly on the progress of its work.
Over the course of six further meetings of the Working Group held in 1998 and 1999, including a final meeting held in Ottawa, Canada at the end of August 1999, the member States defined the principles and objectives of the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (respect for sovereignty, territorial jurisdiction and the domestic legislation of states; reciprocity, transparency, shared responsibility, comprehensiveness and balance in the treatment of the issue; and the Anti-Drug Strategy for the Hemisphere and international agreements and instruments) and how the Mechanism would be put into practice.
The countries put the Evaluation Mechanism into effect though a declaration adopted in Montevideo, Uruguay, during CICAD's XXVI Regular Session. In the declaration, the countries decided that the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism "will be applicable to all states, individually and collectively; that it will be governmental, singular and objective, with the participation of specialized representatives of the governments; that it will be transparent, impartial, and equitable so as to ensure objective evaluation; that it will ensure full, timely participation by the states, based on generally applied norms and procedures, established by mutual agreement in advance, in order to ensure an equitable evaluation process; that it will not contain sanctions of any nature; and that it will respect the confidentiality of deliberations and information administered by the states, in accordance with the norms and procedures established in advance".
In addition, the States, committed themselves "to support the successful conduct and completion of the first evaluation exercise in 2000, which is to be carried out by the Governmental Experts� Group, composed of representatives of the member states of the Organization of American States". Finally, the members requested that the Executive Secretariat of CICAD "provide the necessary support for the Governmental Experts� Group to ensure completion of the first evaluation exercise in December 2000, so that the results may be presented at the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Quebec City, Canada, in 2001".
Please see CICAD's Internet homepage for the full text of the Declaration, as well as for other information on the fight against drug trafficking.
Twenty-Seventh Regular Session of CICAD
On May 1-3, 2000, CICAD held their twenty-seventh regular session at the OAS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. One of the first items on the agenda was the current status in the implementation of the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), including a summarization of the activities and agreements that resulted from the Planning Seminar of Governmental Experts Group (GEG) held on April 10-14, 2000. As reported, the main accomplishments of this GEG Seminar were the election of Coordinators and the division of the 33 Experts into five thematic groups to begin the process of reviewing all country reports except the evaluation on their own country. In keeping with the pre-established Working Plan and time-line, it was noted that the MEM implementation process is on schedule, and both country reports and a Hemisphere report will be presented at the next Summit in April 2001.
In respect to strengthening efforts with regard to the prevention of illicit drug consumption, the Executive Secretariat conducted presentations on the status of National Anti-Drug Strategy and Institution Building programs. These include the Institutional Strengthening of National Drug Councils in Central America, the preparation of National Anti-Drug Plans, and the Inter-American Telecommunications Network for the control of drugs/National Drug Commissions. Finally, the Expert groups on Money Laundering, Demand Reduction, and Alternative Development each gave a report on the status of their respective areas.
The twenty-eighth regular session of CICAD will be held in the city of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, with the tentative date set for the second half of October 2000.
XXX OAS General Assembly
The XXX OAS General Assembly held in June, 2000 in Windsor, Canada, adopted a resolution that urges member states to support the funding of the MEM and expresses the Governments' full support for the work of this mechanism.
Governments adopted a second resolution that urges all member states that have not already done so to sign and ratify the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.
XXVII Regular Session of CICAD
On October 24-26, 2000, CICAD's XXVIII Regular Session took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The main accomplishments of the meeting included gaining support to the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism process and having, for the first time, the participation of various sectors of Civil Society in the sessions.
The following topics were discussed at the meeting:
The mandates and initiatives for drug control and prevention were reinvigorated and fortified at the 2001 Quebec City Summit of the Americas. For more information on these mandates, and to continue with follow up activities in the area of drug control, please see the following mandate:
Updated June 7, 2001
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