HIV/ Aids: The Impact of Narcotic Drugs. Submitted by Ruth Bamela Engo, President AAA.

Just like AAA sees health as an all-encompassing concept, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs has started looking at the inter-relationship between illicit drug use and HIV/AIDS. The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is now mandated to share regularly relevant decisions of the Programme Coordinating Board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS with the Commission's members.

When the Commission met in March 2009 - a session attended by over 1,400 participants representing Governments and civil society - to evaluate and review progress made in the ten year period following the United Nations 20th Special Session in 1988 (UNGASS), it agreed on further steps to reduce the threat posed by drugs to health and security.

In the unanimously adopted Political Declaration and Plan of Action the States Members recognized their shared responsibility for solving the world drugs problem, the need for a "balanced and comprehensive approach" and for respecting human rights. The Declaration called on Member States to concentrate on the health issue by providing a continuum of prevention and care in the health-care and social services, and to treat drug dependence as an illness and devote more resources to prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. It also noted with great concern the adverse consequences of drug abuse for individuals and society as a whole and the alarming rise in the incidence of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases among injecting drug users. It recognized the need for international cooperation in sustainable crop control strategies, and for a response to the serious challenges posed by the increasing links between drug trafficking, corruption, trafficking in humans and other forms of organized crime. During the session UNODC presented a project document to the African Union Commissioner to support the implementation of the African Union Plan of Action on Drug Control and Crime Prevention aimed at reversing the current trends of drug abuse, drug trafficking and organized crime in Africa.

For more information, go to http://www.unodc.org/and to http://www.vngoc.org/

Dr. Herta P. Kaschitz, African Action on AIDS Board Member and main UN Vienna Representative

AAA is a tax exempt non-profit organization registered in the USA and operating under section 501(c) 3 of the IRS code. It is also registered in Cameroon (auth. No 00174/A/MINAT/DAP/SDLP/SAC). It has special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC and the UN Department of Information.