Your Excellencies,
Madam President,
Delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on behalf of our delegation and express our satisfaction to see you are chairing the Sixtieth Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). Likewise, we congratulate the other members of the Bureau.
Our delegation fully welcomes the interventions made by Group of 77 and China and by the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC)
Madam President,
Cuba wishes to highlight the importance of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs as a Rector Agency of the United Nations for addressing of the Drug Global Problem. We support its central role in dealing with the drugs global problem that continues to be every time a more complex challenge produced by multiple causes. It damages health, social coexistence; it jeopardizes civic security, integrity of democratic institutions, public policies, development and economic activities. As a result, we believe that it should be faced in a comprehensive, balanced, multidisciplinary way under the principle of common and shared (but distinguished) responsibility.
We agree that drug control policies should have an approach towards the person´s wellbeing and a perspective towards violence and crime prevention. Additionally, we recognize that the drug abuse is a serious public health problem that needs some policies favouring prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and social inclusion.
Besides, we consider that strategies and policies that shall be applied for addressing said problem should take into account the various realities in each Member State, as well as the full respect for their sovereignty and territorial integrity and the principles set forth in the Charter of the United Nations.
Madam President,
Cuba has paid prioritized attention to drug problem, then, it has dedicated great efforts. During many years, we have developed a coherent policy based on joint work among our public health, educational, legal, and interior security institutions. The broad prevention guaranteed by economic and social project and the zero tolerance for such problem have allowed Cuba to avoid suffering this scourge in the same extend other countries do.
Likewise, we would like to underline the results achieved in the implementation of strategies devoted to drug consumer´s treatment mainly based on medical care, rehabilitation, social and productive inclusion as ways to counteract drug victims´ addictions.
Madam President,
Cuba reaffirms that international cooperation and useful information exchange among our States on the basis of mutual trust under no conditioning is a crucial aspect in facing drug global problem and its related crimes, in the framework offered by the three conventions on drugs.
In this context, we wish to highlight the importance of the cooperation and technical assistance, in this respect the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and its Regional Subsidiary Bodies should play an essential role, mainly in the less developed countries ensuring that it should not be conditioned.
Madam President,
Finally, we ratify the commitment made by our government in the recently concluded Summit of the Community of the Caribbean and Latin American States (CELAC by its Spanish initials) held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic in 2017 to fully cooperate with the region and the whole international community in addressing the Drug Global Problem.
Thank you very much
(Embacuba Austria / Cubaminrex)