last updated Oct/12/00

HISTORY OF CICAD

On November 17, 1984, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), through resolution AG/RES. 699 (XIV-0/84), convoked an Inter-American Specialized Conference on Traffic in Narcotic Drugs, to be held in the first quarter of 1986. In January 1985, the Secretary General of the OAS, Joao Clemente Baena Soares, appointed an Ad Hoc Coordinator for Drug Trafficking Matters. In April 1986, the Specialized Conference on Traffic in Narcotic Drugs was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a result of that Hemispheric meeting, the Inter-American Program of Action of Rio de Janeiro Against the Illicit Use and Production of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Traffic Therein (more commonly known as the Inter-American Program of Action of Rio de Janeiro) emerged. It recommended the establishment of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), composed of the member states of the OAS. The subsequent General Assembly of the OAS, held in Guatemala City in November 1986, established CICAD and approved its Statute through resolution AG/RES. 813 (XVI-0/86). Through resolution AG/RES. 814 (XVI-0/86), it further approved the aforementioned Inter-American Program of Action of Rio de Janeiro as its working framework and guiding principles. It was determined that CICAD's objective would be to eliminate the illicit traffic in and abuse of drugs.

In its Statute, CICAD was established as a technically autonomous agency of the OAS, performing its functions within the framework of the Inter-American Program of Action of Rio de Janeiro, in accordance with the mandates of the General Assembly of the Organization. CICAD was initially composed of 11 member states elected by the General Assembly every three years by secret ballot. It is currently made up of the 34 member states. Through the aforementioned Statute, the Secretary General of the Organization, in consultation with the Commission, designates an Executive Secretary. The Executive Secretary heads a specialized agency composed of professional and administrative staff, which became known as the Executive Secretariat of CICAD. It was established that the Commission would meet twice a year for its regular sessions and that it could further hold special sessions at the request of the Commission, when appropriate.

On June 8, 1990, the General Assembly of the OAS, through resolution AG/RES. 1045 (XX-0/90), adopted the Declaration and Program of Action of Ixtapa. That Declaration approves a 20-point Plan of Action that sets CICAD's priorities for the implementation of the Inter-American Program of Action of Rio de Janeiro for the 1990s. The Declaration resulted from a meeting of high-level representatives of the member states who met in Ixtapa, Mexico in April 1990.

The following year, through resolutions AG/RES. 1115 and 1118 (XXI-0/91), the General Assembly of the OAS endorsed the Inter-American Program of Quito: Comprehensive Education to Prevent Drug Abuse and invited the member states to carry out the necessary activities for its due implementation. This Program resulted from a hemispheric meeting, the goal of which was to confirm and propose the bases for a long-term Inter-American Program aimed at effective prevention, starting in 1990.

In order to promote the establishment of intensified actions with the participation of all the governments, individually and collectively, to address and attack the problem of the production of, illicit traffic in, and abuse of drugs, as well as money laundering, the diversion of chemical precursors and substances, and the traffic in firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition, CICAD prepared the following three model regulations, which have been adopted by the General Assembly of the Organization.

In June 1990, through resolution AG/RES. 1045 (XX-0/90), the Model Regulations to Control Chemical Precursors and Chemical Substances, Machines, and Materials were adopted.

In May 1992, through resolution AG/RES. 1198 (XXII-0/92), the Model Regulations Concerning Laundering Offenses Connected to Illicit Drug Trafficking and Related Offenses were adopted.

In June 1998, through resolution AG/RES. 1543 (XXVIII-0/98), the Model Regulations for the Control of the International Movement of Firearms, their parts and components, and ammunition introduction were adopted.

Out of this group, the first two model regulations have been amended, as approved by the General Assembly of the OAS through resolution AG/RES. 1544 (XXVIII-0/98).

In June 1997, the General Assembly adopted the Anti-Drug Strategy in the Hemisphere, through resolution AG/RES. 1458 (XXVII-0/97), as a platform for greater efforts to control drugs in the twenty-first century. This Strategy was negotiated at the hemispheric level by all of the member states of the OAS. The 1997 General Assembly encouraged them to continue to work together and support the Executive Secretariat of CICAD, in order to facilitate an effective implementation of the provisions established. In May 1998, during its twenty-third regular session, CICAD approved the Plan of Action for the Implementation of the Anti-Drug Strategy in the Hemisphere.

Through the mandate from the Second Summit of the Americas, held in Santiago, Chile in April 1998, the member states of CICAD have committed to developing a singular and objective process of multilateral governmental evaluation, in dealing with the diverse manifestations of the drug problem. In May 1998 in Washington, D.C., the First Meeting of the Inter-Governmental Working Group on the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) was held. In August of 1998 in Washington, D.C., the Second Meeting of that Working Group took place. In october 1998 in Honduras, the Third Meeting was held and in January 1999 in Washington, D.C.