UNIS/NAR/956
15 May 2006
Seven Members Elected to International Narcotics Control Board
VIENNA, 15 May (UN Information Service) -- Seven members have been elected to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York on 10 May 2006, during its 2006 organizational session.
The Council elected Hamid Ghodse (Islamic Republic of Iran) and Sri Suryawati (Indonesia) from among candidates nominated by the World Health Organization; and Maria Elena Medina-Mora Icaza (Mexico), Carola Lander (Germany), Melvyn Levitsky (United States of America), Raymond Yans (Belgium), and Xin Yu (People's Republic of China) were elected from among candidates nominated by Governments. These Board members will serve in their individual capacities for a five-year term starting in 2007.
The 86th Session of the Board is currently being held in Vienna, Austria from 8-19 May 2006. On 12 May 2006, the INCB held its election for its Bureau. Philip Onagwele Emafo was elected President of the Board. The Board also elected Robert Jean Joseph Chrétien Lousberg as First Vice-President, Sevil Atasoy as Second Vice-President and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Estimates and Tatyana Borisovna Dmitrieva as Rapporteur. The officers are elected for a one-year term.
The current composition of the Board is as follows: Joseph Bediako Asare (Ghana), Sevil Atasoy (Turkey), Madan Mohan Bhatnagar (India), Elisaldo Luiz de Araújo Carlini (Brazil), Tatyana Borisovna Dmitrieva (Russian Federation), Philip Onagwele Emafo (Nigeria), Gilberto Gerra (Italy), Hamid Ghodse (Islamic Republic of Iran), Melvyn Levitsky (United States of America), Robert Jean Joseph Chrétien Lousberg (Netherlands), Rainer Wolfgang Schmid (Austria), Camilo Uribe Granja (Colombia) and Brian Watters (Australia).
For the first time, the President of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson was able to address the Board by video-link during this Session. The President of ECOSOC is also scheduled to address the Board during its current session.
The Board, which meets in private and closed sessions, reviews the drug control situation in the world, including the implementation of the drug control conventions by Governments, as well as the overall operation of the international drug control system. The Board will review its missions to Djibouti, Yemen and the People's Republic of China and convey relevant recommendations to those Governments. In addition, the Board will review the implementation of its recommendations that it made to Algeria, Cambodia, Fiji, Germany and Peru, following missions to those countries, which were undertaken in 2003.
The Board will also discuss the launching of the Board's Annual Report and the meetings of the President of the Board with Ambassadors and representatives of 17 countries during the Commission on Narcotics Drugs in March 2006, as well as the briefing to the members of ECOSOC and other Permanent Missions at a meeting chaired by the Chairman of ECOSOC in April 2006.
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For further information, contact:
INCB Secretariat
Tel: ++ 43 1 26060 4163
Email:
secretariat@incb.org
