New York
Manuscrit, non publié à l’époque. Seul le prononcé fait foi. Les notes de travail ont été retirées.
Discours prononcé en anglais. Texte original, non traduit.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In 2015, the international community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The Goals help us to address the global challenges we are facing today. One of these problems is the world drug problem.
Estimates from 2016 suggest that – globally – some 275 million people used drugs at least once in the previous year.
Almost 11 million people injected drugs,
of which 1.6 million were infected with HIV
and 6.1 million carried the Hepatitis C virus.
These figures show that we need to address key causes, but also effects and unintended consequences.
And these figures show that we have to pursue our efforts in favor of public health and human rights based drug policies.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In Switzerland, we have realized that drug policies have a stronger impact when we take into account the links between different goals as incorporated in the SDGs.
Let me illustrate this with two examples:
Goal number 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
According to the World Drug Report 2018 issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, one in three drug users is a woman.
However, women continue to account for only one in five people in treatment.
In other words: The lack of gender equality hinders access of drug consuming women and girls to health and social services, including general health care.
By achieving gender equality, we can also achieve progress regarding the world drug problem as we committed to in Goal number three.
This is why, this year, when implementing the Swiss National Addiction Strategy, we focused on equality.
The second example is Goal number three that aims at ensuring healthy lives and the promotion of well-being for all at all stages. “FOR ALL” includes drug users.
In this respect, Switzerland promotes and supports the implementation of the harm reduction package of interventions, as set out in the Technical Guide of
the World Health Organization,
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
and the Joint UN Programme on HIV and AIDS.
Ending the HIV epidemic contributes without a doubt to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition, drug consumption rooms are part of the comprehensive Swiss approach to address the consequences of problematic substance use.
Such interventions are a key policy tool to mitigate some of the most devastating consequences of drug abuse, such as overdose death,
but also to support public safety and security.
These two examples illustrate how complex it is to find effective political responses to the challenges we face.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In April 2016 I was here in New York at the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem when the international community adopted the Outcome Document.
This document makes operational recommendations in seven areas. Today, two years later, I re-iterate Switzerland’s support to these recommendations and their implementation. I call on you to do the same.
The United Nations’ and member states’ commitment to ensure that future drug policies operate within the sustainable development framework is crucial.
Thank you!