On 9th July 2010, the United Nations Secretary General appointed Russian Ambassador Yuri Viktorovich Fedotov as the next Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In welcoming Mr. Fedotov, IDPC outlines in this Advocacy Note the critical challenges that he will face as he takes up office.

On the 19th and 20th March, 2010, the Andreas Papandreou Foundation (APF) and IDPC co-hosted the first informal policy dialogue for the South East European region.  The dialogue was attended by NGO presentatives and policy makers from Albania, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Greece.  Participants shared knowledge and experiences from across the region, identifying common problems and key priorities for drug policy advocacy.  A working group was set up to take forward the setting up of

Governments in Southeast Asia Detain Thousands in Abusive Drug Detention Centers

From the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: 'After five years as the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says one of the most surprising and distressing of his experiences has been the realization of the appalling conditions endured by the majority of the world’s prisoners and detainees. “In many countries,” he says, “I was simply shocked by the way human beings are treated in detention.

The UN’s World Drug Day on June 26th is also the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. While coincidental, the conjunction is unfortunately apt. Across the world, whether as a result of police apprehension, diversion to treatment as an alternative to incarceration, or involuntary commitment under health statutes or at the request of family members, people who use drugs are subjected to cruel, inhuman, or degrading practices, many of which rise to the level of torture.

Coinciding with the 2010 UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the International Harm Reduction Association, the Open Society Institute and Human Rights Watch, created a series of fact sheets on the human rights implications of anti-drug policies and practices.

This is the first edition of the IDPC Drug Policy Guide aimed at national government policy makers. This publication is a collaborative effort by a number of IDPC members and partners, and brings together global evidence and best practices on the design and implementation of drug policies and programmes at national level.

Welcome to the first issue of the IDPC magazine. This series of magazines from IDPC, created in association with TalkingDrugs, will feature personal stories behind the policy debates to give a flavour of how policies affect the real, lived experiences of people on the ground.