Th Graduate Institute, Maison de la Paix | Geneva
This dialogue session was organised by the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute and the Global Commission on Drug Policy, within the framework of the Executive Course on Drug Policy, Diplomacy, and Global Public Health, and was supported by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs, to be held in April 2016, puts illicit drugs and their related problems into the international limelight, offering a major opportunity to develop a culture of dialogue and discuss new strategies and approaches that take into account the multidimensional nature of drug policies. The direct linkages that exist between drug use, the legislation on drug control, the enjoyment of human rights for all individuals involved, and the impact on public and global health need to be at the centre of this debate.
The Global Health Programme and the Global Commission on Drug Policy are organising this dialogue session with Jan Malinowski, Executive Director of the Pompidou Group, to provide an intellectual platform to exchange ideas and debate key elements in the lead-up to UNGASS 2016. The session will be moderated by Professor Michel Kazatchkine, member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and UN Secretary General Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Jan Malinowski is a qualified lawyer in Spain and in England. After eight years of professional practice, he joined the Council of Europe, where he worked for eleven years with the anti-torture watchdog. Between 2005 and 2014, he was responsible for ground-breaking work on media policy, freedom of expression, and Internet governance, bringing the Council of Europe to the forefront of the debate. On 1st December 2014, he became the Executive Secretary of the Pompidou Group, the Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs set up in 1971 at the initiative of the French President Georges Pompidou to provide innovative multi-disciplinary approaches to drug policy. Against a backdrop of human rights and the rule of law, facilitation of the work of the Pompidou Group was entrusted to the Council of Europe in 1980.