Sri Lanka calls for international cooperation to combat world drug problem

Buddhist devotees light incense during Bak full moon Poya Day at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo yesterday – Pic by Pradeep Pathirana

Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayake addressing the UN General Assembly on Wednesday highlighted the need for all international actors to come together to combat the world drug problem.

Assuring Sri Lanka’s fullest cooperation to all international efforts to combat the world drug problem, “a problem which has no boarders, which threatens to destabilise all our societies,”, the Minister briefed the Assembly on the steps that Sri Lanka has taken in its national capacity to address this issue.

Minister Ratnayake is leading the Sri Lanka delegation at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on ‘World Drug Problem’, which is in Session from 19 to 21 April at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Special Session will be an important milestone in achieving the goals set in the policy document of 2009 ‘Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem,’ which defined action to be taken by Member States as well as goals to be achieved by 2019.

He said the Government of Sri Lanka works towards its determination of reducing and total elimination of substances with the effective analysis of social and scientific researches on narcotics and psychotropic substances, based on evidence based practices.

The Minister said the Sri Lankan Government reaffirms its political will and determination to tackle the drug problem locally and will assist in this cause internationally by reviewing the existing National Policy, which was formulated more than a decade ago.

“The Government will adopt a broader approach to drug abuse control within the context of human development, focusing particularly on the links between drug abuse, poverty reduction, crime prevention and improving health,” he said.

Minister Ratnayake was also a lead speaker in a side event organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) titled ‘Listen First’ and spoke on the subject of Preventive Education and Training in Sri Lanka: Substance Use Prevention, Education and Training Targeting Children and Adolescents. Her Majesty the Queen of Sweden, Executive Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of World Health Organization were among other speakers of this event.

Prof. Ravindra Fernando, Chairman of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board of Sri Lanka Co-Chaired the Round Table discussion of the UNGASS on Demand reduction and related measures, including prevention and treatment.

In addition, Minister Ratnayake held discussions with Arun Jaitely, Minister of Finance of India, K. Shanmugam, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Minister of Interior and Narcotics Control of Pakistan and Salamat Azimi, Minister of Counter Narcotics, Afghanistan.

Dr. Rohan Perera, Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and Prof. Ravindra Fernando, Chairman of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board of Sri Lanka participated at the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on ‘World Drug Problem’ and also accompanied the Minister at the bilateral meetings. (Colombopage)