With the support of the Open Society Foundations, the School of Public Policy's Global Policy Academy hosted an evaluation workshop of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) on May 17 in Brussels. It was organized and facilitated by SPP Professor and Associate Dean Julia Buxton with Maria Phelan from Harm Reduction International and Peter Sarosi from Rights Reporter Foundation. Twenty people from civil society organizations across Europe attended to discuss the UNGASS which took place last month in New York.
The morning started with a panel discussion about the achievements at UNGASS. The discussion was led by Jamie Bridge from the International Drug Policy Consortium and Pien Metaal from the Transnational Institute. It was agreed that while the UNGASS Outcome Document did not meet many of the goals hoped for, it was important to note that there had been progress. So while the Outcome Document refers to "alternative or additional measures with regard to conviction or punishment" and includes first references to proportionality in punishment, there is no specific mention of decriminalization or the death penalty. While there were hard-fought wins on naloxone, NSP, and OST, unanimous support from UN agencies and positive country statements from 30 countries, there was no consensus on harm reduction. For each positive outcome, there were numerous frustrations.
The second half of the workshop discussed the future beyond UNGASS and securing drug policy reform in Europe with a focus on what strategies helped achieve change, what the main obstacles encountered at UNGASS were, and key learning. Civil society interventions were a highlight at UNGASS and the session itself served as a catalyst for civil society collaborative work. In fact, it was the reason these organizations got together in the first place at GPA's pre-UNGASS workshop in July. While the doors at UNGASS were very much closed and it was difficult to infiltrate some of the forums and task forces, it was agreed that the organizations present in Brussels on Tuesday should continue to work together to share ideas, information on current developments in other countries, and best practices in order to continue securing drug policy reform in Europe.