This week on Century of Lies: #CND67 Pt. Two: Voices of Civil Society. On this edition of Century of Lies, Part Two of our coverage of the Sixty-Seventh Session of the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs. This week we feature some of the voices of civil society at the CND including Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, Jacob Chagnon with Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Paradigma Coalition, and representatives of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Youth Rise, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, the Brazilian Harm Reduction Network, and DeJusticia.

This week on Century of Lies: Human Rights and World Drug Policies. At the recently-concluded meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria, the International Drug Policy Consortium, along with some national delegations and UN agencies, held a special event to contextualize and discuss the findings and recommendations of an August 2023 report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights entitled Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem. On this edition of Century we hear from some of the panelists including Peggy Hicks, Director of Thematic Engagement, Special Procedure, and the Right to Development Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Her Excellency Ambassador Laura Gil, Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations in Vienna; Jindřich Vobořil, National Drug Coordinator of Czechia; Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS; and Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Health Poverty Action recently held a webinar series entitled “A World With Drugs: Legal Regulation Through A Development Lens.” On this edition of Century of Lies we hear a portion of the most recent webinar in that series, which was entitled “Community Participation and Legal Regulation.” Speakers include Ann Fordham, the executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, who facilitated the panel; Charan Sharma, a Program Manager with the Drug Use & Harm Reduction Alliance in India; and Emma Campbell, an activist with the Alliance for Choice in Northern Ireland.

This week on Century of Lies: Drug Regulation and Development. The nonprofit Health Poverty Action recently began a webinar series entitled A World With Drugs: Legal Regulation Through A Development Lens. They held the first webinar in this series recently, Drugs are a Development Issue: An Introduction to Legal Regulation. We’ll hear some of the speakers from that webinar including Philasande Mahlakata, Project Coordinator for Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network, which is is based in Mpondoland in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa; Dr. Duncan Green, Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB and Professor in Practice in International Development at the London School of Economics; and Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drugs Policy Consortium.