Director General/Executive Director
Mr. President,
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
Ladies and gentlemen,
My thanks to the Security Council for this opportunity to brief the Council on what the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is doing to support Afghanistan to promote peace, security, the rule of law and sustainable development.
The situation in the country as related to drug production and trafficking and transnational organized crime remains complex.
Insurgents and other non-state actors control areas under opium poppy cultivation and are raising hundreds of millions of dollars.
The persisting challenges posed by illicit drugs, economic and financial crime, corruption, money laundering and the financing of terrorism continue to undermine the stability of the country.
These crimes have a profoundly negative impact on the Government's macro-economic objectives of financial inclusion, job creation, robust private sector-led growth and stable domestic revenues.
Nonetheless, we can also report some good news.
UNODC is currently working with the Afghan government to finalize the 2019 Afghanistan Opium Survey, which will be released in October.
We do not have the results yet, but we expect that the area under opium poppy cultivation will decrease from the record high levels in 2017 and 2018.
This could be due to a combination of factors, including saturation of the market, weather conditions, shifting consumption trends and so forth.
However, we must also acknowledge the efforts of government of Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, supported by the international community.
UNODC, including through our Office in Kabul, is providing enhanced technical assistance and capacity building to enable Afghanistan to pursue balanced, and health- and rights-centred responses to drug supply and demand, in line with the 2019 Ministerial Declaration adopted by Member States at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March.
Mobile Detection Teams and Precursor Control Units, which were established with the support of UNODC, last year seized some 800 kilos of heroin, more than 1.2 tons of opium and nearly nine tons of hashish.
They also seized more than 7,500 litres of precursor acetic anhydride, an amount sufficient to produce more than three tons of heroin.
Alongside building national capacities, UNODC is committed to strengthening regional cooperation, including by linking initiatives and platforms for regional and sub-regional cooperation to address trafficking in illicit drugs and precursor chemicals.
Important operational mechanisms include the Triangular Initiative and its Joint Planning Cell, the Afghanistan-Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan Initiative and the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre, which is looking into expanding its membership to include Afghanistan.
In view of these regional responses it is worth noting that this year's World Drug Report showed a decline in opiate trafficking from Afghanistan along the "northern" route through Central Asia.
UNODC is also promoting coordination with other regional initiatives and mechanisms, including the Heart of Asia, the Paris Pact Initiative, RECCA, the Afghan Joint Coordination and Monitoring Body and others.
Furthermore, alternative development to enable farmers to free themselves from illicit opium cultivation, as well as evidence-based drug use prevention and treatment, remain crucial components of UNODC's support.
Through our alternative development work, more than 8,500 jobs were created and more than four million dollars of income was generated in 2018. I am pleased to note that nearly 4,200 women and girls are among those employed.
More than 4,800 social contracts were signed with individual beneficiaries and 26 with communities, with all agreeing to refrain from opium poppy cultivation, production, processing and trafficking.
Alongside these efforts, UNODC is also scaling up our support to the Government to address vulnerabilities to human trafficking resulting from conflict, in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 2331 and 2388.
Just last week we launched in Afghanistan the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants, which is funded by the European Union and implemented with IOM.
Disrupting terrorist financing and linkages to drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime remain a priority element of UNODC's work with Afghanistan.
The government's efforts to see through reforms and improve implementation demonstrate the continued high-level political commitment to strengthen the country's framework to counter money-laundering and financing of terrorism.
UNODC is supporting these endeavours, concentrating, at the government's request, on the areas of greatest risk.
Our assistance thus focuses on investigating and disrupting financing networks of terrorist and organized crime groups, as well as money laundering, corruption and other economic crimes.
It also includes combatting the illegal flow of cash out of and into the country, and improving the supervision of banks and money value transfer services.
Mr. President,
Members of the Council,
The international community recently marked Afghanistan's one hundred years of independence. This occasion for joyful celebration was tragically marred by terrorist attacks on innocent people.
I welcome Afghanistan's determination to stop such despicable attacks from derailing progress. I also commend the government for establishing and co-chairing with Spain the Group of Friends of Victims of Terrorism.
UNODC is working closely with Afghanistan and other partners to better understand the challenges faced by victims and advance assistance through victim-centred criminal justice approaches.
UNODC remains strongly committed to supporting Afghanistan to address the inter-linked challenges of drugs, crime, corruption and terrorism, and we rely on the assistance of the international community to help us carry out this essential work.
Thank you.