Международный контроль над наркотиками: роль и функции МНКБ

International treaty body monitoring licit drug trade

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is an independent treaty body, one of the four treaty mandated bodies under international drug control law (alongside the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, UNODC on behalf of the Secretary General, and the WHO). After the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946, the Lake Success Protocol Amending the Agreements, Conventions and Protocols on Narcotic Drugs transferred the powers and mandate of both Permanent Central Opium Board and Drug Supervisory Board to a specially created joint body to administer the estimate system. The functions of both bodies were merged into the current INCB in 1961 with the adoption of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, but the INCB only started its work in 1968 when the Single Convention entered into force. Initially, the composition of the INCB under the Single Convention was strongly influenced by the 1946 Protocol. It inherited mechanisms of nomination from the League of Nations and Office International d'Hygiène Publique. The mandates and functions of the INCB were later complemented with the adoption of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971 and the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances in 1988. +Comparison of the role of the INCB with its predecessors within the organisational structure of international drug controlOrganisational chart of inter governmental drug control (as of 1935)Organisational chart of inter governmental drug control (as of 2022)

The drug control treaties mandates four international bodies: the Board, the World Health Organization, the Secretary General of the United Nations (nowadays represented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The commission has power to influence drug control policy by advising other bodies and deciding how various substances will be controlled. Enforcement power lies in the mandate of each State Party to the Conventions. The Board has mostly a monitoring and surveillance role.

The INCB has published several special reports on the availability of opiates for medical needs, going back to 1989 and 1995 and has repeatedly called for urgent global action to address the situation. In its 2008 report, noting that millions of people around the world are suffering from acute and chronic pain, the INCB calls on governments to support a new programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), which aims at improving access to those medicines. But a number of civil society stakeholders, such as the Senlis Council, has argued that the INCB is not taking seriously its responsibility vis à vis the global needs for medicines:The INCB is responsible for ensuring adequate supplies of drugs for medical use. Currently millions of people are suffering due to a mounting global shortage of opium based painkillers such as morphine and codeine, especially in the developing world. The methods used by the INCB to calculate the amounts needed of these medicines are flawed and need to be reconsidered. A 2020 research found that "for fifty years, the INCB has focussed predominantly upon [ ] illicit uses, with little attention to [ ] therapeutic Uses. Decreasing attention is provided to the estimates of annual requirements system, under which global opioid access to opioids is documented as inadequate."

In 2019, observers noted that in "recent years have seen the Board, through its annual report, become progressively more engaged with the issue of human rights." But issues remain open.

Many observers and stakeholders have criticized the lack of transparency, accountability, and mechanisms for participation in INCB work, contrary to other United Nations system entities. In 2010, a report of the London School of Economics noted, "INCB remains perhaps the most closed and least transparent of any entity supported by the United Nations. There are no minutes or public reports on the deliberations of the INCB. The INCB's proceedings are closed not only to NGOs but also to member states." The report noted the United Nations Security Council had transparency, accountability and participation mechanisms that are more open than those of the INCB. Observers noted that as of December 2021, the situation had not improved.