Dear Friends,
It’s a great honour to speak to the participants of the First Regional Meeting of the Rome Consensus in the Caribbean.
I met many of you during the Geneva meetings last week, specially at the workshop “Humanitarian and public health consequences of substance abuse”, organised by the Italian Red Cross and the International Federation as a side event at the XXX International Red Cross Red Crescent Conference on the 29th of November 2007, where we had a deep discussion about this issue with the 98 participants from 48 NS and governments.
Before the current drug conventions were even written, in 1922 at the Bangkok Asian Red Cross Conference, the Red Cross was calling for sensible, humanitarian action to tackle drug use. Throughout this historic process, with renewed commitments in the International Conference of Istanbul in 1969 and of Geneva in 1986, the highest governance of the Red Cross Movement has systematically called on the governments to bring their moral and material support to actions fighting vulnerability.
Why the RC/RC should be involved on the fight of drug related suffering?
It is a good question my Dear friends: why drugs and not other humanitarian suffering?
Since its foundation in 1864, the Red Cross has rigorously followed its core Principle of Neutrality. This is the reason why, today, the Red Cross can work everywhere, in every community, regardless of racial, ideological, religious or political divides.
But the Red Cross has also another fundamental mission: the one of advocating for the most vulnerable people. Far from being contradictory, those two forces – neutrality and advocacy – if I may call them like this, meet at the point of alleviating human suffering. This is where the Red Cross finds its unique power of humanity
In the RC/RC Movement, we care about the 600 million people victims of conflicts and natural disasters every year, which is part of our mission, Principles and values;
However, the second major group of people suffering in the world is the drug users, who are stigmatized, discriminated and isolated from society.
Nowadays, more than 200 million people are drug users, worldwide; their marginalization affects their families, friends and communities and further hampers the civil society’s development.
RC/RC not only as an operational actor, but also as Advocacy player…
You know, as well as I do, that stigma kills. Indifference and discrimination kill more than the abuse of substances.
I have never seen so much human suffering and stigmatization than in drugs. Sadly, a big share of this suffering is caused as much by the repressive policies as the substances themselves.
This suffering does not end with the users only; it affects their immediate families and communities at large.
Everywhere in the world, even in countries that uphold human rights, drug users are still denied basic citizen rights. Drug users are humiliated, bullied, discriminated and treated more as criminals than as sick people. Public opinion and well thinking people are often accomplices of this stigmatization.
Discrimination and indifference kill more than the abuse of substances. Moreover, stigmatization and lack of care for drug victims are unwise and destructive not only for the users themselves, but also for the communities in which they live.
The policies developed to tackle drug use too often contribute to make the situation worse. The use of violence against users has no rational and logical basis. Violence engenders more violence and suffering, and ultimately affects the wider community.
In this regard, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement speaks loudly on behalf of the most vulnerable ones…
The Rome Consensus
The Rome Consensus declaration for a Humanitarian Drug Policy was first signed in December 2005 during the High Level Seminar ‘Bridging the Gap between Public Health and Drug Policy’ organised by the Italian Red Cross and The Senlis Council.
In March 2007, “the Rome Consensus” commitment was strengthened and expanded on the occasion of the International Think Tank on Drugs hosted by the Italian Red Cross and supported by the Senlis Council.
Further on, in April 2007, The Rome Consensus was presented in Geneva to the Health, Youth and Development Commission and in May 2007 to the Governing Board of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The Rome Consensus is a unique opportunity to establish a new commitment to a humanitarian drug policy based on reason and compassion that generates action, free from ideology, force, stigmatization and discrimination.
The Consensus now commits 81 National Societies of Red Cross and Red Crescent from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Central and Asia/Pacific.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank the Grenadian RC for accepting to host this important meeting and to provide all the necessary support and arrangements: I especially want to express my gratitude to the Chairman, to the Secretary General and to Samantha Roberts for their commitment and excellent preparation.
Many, many thanks to the National Societies which accepted the invitation to participate in this regional meeting.
Finally I want to say thank you very much to our friends of the Senlis Council, especially to Dr. Emmanuel Reinert for their unconditional support to the Rome Consensus initiatives since 2005: this is a clear demonstration that operational alliances work out when everyone involved has a clear understanding of their priorities and what they want to achieve.
Final remarks
This meeting in Grenada is the occasion to propose new ideas for our Movement to take drug policy as a strategic issue to be dealt with at all the levels of action by our National Societies.
Evidently the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is still learning, sometimes hesitating, but its fundamental mission of ‘Spreading the light of science and the warmth of human sympathy’ always shows us the way forward.
The Red Cross, but also civil society, always go where human progress and sympathy calls them.
When governments fail to follow such path we will keep on going forward, bringing the warmth of human sympathy to the most vulnerable.
Drug policy has lacked for too long this warmth.
National governments and the international community must catch up with this progress at the grass root level and acknowledge that the time for a humanitarian drug policy has come.
In a globalized world, we all have to mobilize our power of humanity in order to offer sustainable and systematic solutions to a problem as wide-reaching as drugs.
As a chairman of the Rome Consensus leaders group, I’m confident in our strengths, in our people, our skills, our image and visibility, the respect and love for our Emblems, the commitment to our Principles, the power of humanity and our humanitarian values.
I wish that all the leaders present in Grenada today accept to endorse the Rome Consensus declaration 2007, which is just a declaration of intention, it’s not an official policy paper; my personal goal is to reach 100 NS signatories of the Rome Consensus until December 2007 with your help.
Together, only together, we can make a difference.