VIENNA 9 March 2026
Prof. Sevil Atasoy, President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), delivering her opening statement at the sixty‑ninth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
Ambassador Hovhannisyan, Chair of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs,
Mr. Brandolino, Acting Executive Director of UNODC,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the International Narcotics Control Board, I would like to congratulate you, Mr. Chair, on your election.
I wish to also congratulate the new Executive Director of UNODC, Her Excellency Madam Monica Juma.
Under Item 5, I will be presenting the INCB reports for 2025, a year which saw extensive discussions on how the United Nations can continue delivering for the people it serves.
The Annual Report focuses on international cooperation in drug control.
The system of estimates and assessments for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances represents a success story for international cooperation, with very low levels of diversion into illicit channels.
Despite persistent disparities in the availability of controlled medicines, global supplies are sufficient to meet reported national requirements. INCB Learning is building the capacity of national authorities with a view to improving the situation.
Another success story is the international precursor control system. In March 2025, use of the INCB PEN Online platform prevented the diversion of 3 tons of 1-boc-4-piperidone, a fentanyl precursor that the Commission included in Table I of the 1988 Convention just months earlier. Had the shipment not been stopped, it could have been used to manufacture up to 1.6 billion potentially fatal doses of fentanyl.
The final success story that I will highlight is the work of the INCB GRIDS Programme to strengthen voluntary international cooperation to address trafficking in dangerous non-scheduled substances. Through no-cost access to the IONICS tools, training and international operations, Governments have exchanged information on more than 135,000 seizures, intercepted over 1.5 million lethal doses and deployed cutting-edge technologies to dismantle illicit supply chains.
INCB is proud of these achievements made together with Member States, international organizations and civil society. However, the Board and its secretariat face a lack of stable and predictable funding.
The regular budget liquidity crisis is affecting the implementation of our core treaty-mandated functions.
The INCB precursors programme, the INCB Learning programme and the INCB GRIDS Programme rely on voluntary contributions for their operations and outcomes, some of which are based on treaty mandates and should be funded by the regular budget.
INCB is grateful for the support of all Member States in the budgetary process and for the support of the Member States that have made voluntary contributions to the projects. To ensure that our work can continue, we have invited Member States to consider providing general purpose contributions to support key activities.
Sustained and predictable resources are necessary to ensure that the international drug control system established by the drug control conventions can continue to safeguard health and welfare worldwide.
In closing, 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of the 2016 special session of the General Assembly on the world drug problem. The outcome document of that session remains as relevant today, if not more so, reinforced by the 2019 Ministerial Declaration and the 2024 high-level declaration. As the international community advances efforts to implement the shared global drug policy commitments, INCB calls on Governments to intensify the application of the international drug control conventions with the overarching goal of safeguarding the health and welfare of humankind.
Thank you very much.
