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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:37 am
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Results for drug policy (west africa)
1 results foundAuthor: Kavanagh, Camino Title: Harmonizing Drug Legislation in West Africa - A Call for Minimum Standards Summary: In 2008 ECOWAS produced a Political Declaration and Regional Action Plan to address the Growing Problem of Illicit Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime and Drug Abuse. In 2013, the Action Plan was formally extended, and priority was placed on the conduct of an extensive review "of existing Member states - legislation with a view to achieving a common minimum standard to ensure sufficient deterrent against illicit trafficking and enhance the use demand reduction strategies to address problem associated with drug use in line with relevant regional and international conventions." As part of that process, the Heads of ECOWAS Drug Control Committees called on the ECOWAS Commission "to harmonize ECOWAS legal texts into a single and up to date regional protocol on drug control and prevention of organized crime." In addition to the ECOWAS initiative, other efforts are underway in the region to harmonize drug legislation. The latter include: i. The Dakar Initiative, a sub-regional initiative signed by seven countries in February 2010. The Initiative intends to support the implementation of the ECOWAS Regional Action Plan and the Political Declaration. One of the main outcomes of the Dakar Initiative to date is an effort by the Senegalese Ministry of Interior to draft "a document [aimed at] harmoniz[ing] existing national legal instruments at a sub-regional level to fight drug trafficking in a coordinated and more efficient manner." A first draft of the 'harmonization law' was tabled in November 2012. ii. The West African Network of Central Authorities and Prosecutors (WACAP), a UNODC-backed initiative aimed at improving cooperation in criminal matters in the West African region and serving as a basis for capacity building. The first meeting of the Network was held in May 2013 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. In January 2013 the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) was launched with the purpose of inter alia mobilizing public awareness, and developing evidence-based policy recommendations around drug trafficking and drug consumption and related impacts. Throughout its country visits and in the background papers commissioned to inform its work, WACD Commissioners were repeatedly informed of the significant challenges that persist with regard to drug related legislation in the sub-region, as well as challenges regarding the effective implementation of the legislation. Beyond a range of technical challenges cited, and the lack of the necessary expertise on the part of law enforcement and the judiciary for implementing drug-related legislation, the Commissioners were also informed on repeated occasions that people who use drugs and low-level drug dealers tend to be the ones who feel the brunt of the law, while high-level actors in the drug market tend to benefit most from legal inconsistencies or loopholes, corruption or political interference in due process. In addition, despite the human right protections directly or indirectly provided for in national legislation, these are rarely respected when it comes to providing treatment for people who have come into conflict with the law for drug-related offences. In this regard, and cognizant of the fact that different initiatives are already underway in West Africa, the WACD commissioned an empirically informed paper on a sampling of national drug laws and related legislation in four (4) countries in West Africa. As a means to better understand how legislation is being applied in practice, the paper was also informed by interviews with law enforcement and prison officials as well as a sampling of people in pre-trial detention or serving sentences for drug offences in the same four countries. The four countries selected for the case studies are Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Guinea (the questionnaires for the prison sampling dimension of the case studies can be found in Annex B and C). The findings of the four case studies were presented to the WACD at its third meeting held in Accra, Ghana in October 2013. Subsequently, a small expert group drew from the case study findings, analysis of legislation in other countries (particularly Senegal, Sierra Leone and Liberia), and the findings from other background papers commissioned by the WACD to develop this synthesis report which puts forward a series of recommendations for minimum standards for drug related legislation in the region. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations of this synthesis report will fuel further discussion and serve as constructive input to ECOWAS and national policy makers as they move toward reviewing and harmonizing national drug legislation in West Africa. Details: West Africa Commission on Drugs, 2014. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: WACD Background paper No. 9(1): Accessed November 26, 2014 at: http://www.wacommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Harmonizing-Drug-Legislation-in-West-Africa-2014-06-05.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Africa URL: http://www.wacommissionondrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Harmonizing-Drug-Legislation-in-West-Africa-2014-06-05.pdf Shelf Number: 134256 Keywords: Drug ControlDrug Policy (West Africa)Drug RegulationDrug TraffickingOrganized Crime |