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Resolution 1960 (2013) Final version
Drug trafficking from Afghanistan as a threat to European security
1. Narcotic drugs constitute one of
the major challenges to modern societies. Drug abuse destroys human health
and dignity, causes the loss of thousands of lives in Europe and
brings sorrow and despair to many individuals and their families.
2. Drug trafficking and sales disrupt public order, fuel violent
crime, undermine the economy, and seek to corrupt, infiltrate and
control State institutions and destroy the social fabric. The drugs
problem is therefore a major threat to security, social cohesion
and the rule of law.
3. Moreover, the proceeds from the illicit drugs trade are used
to finance international criminal and terrorist networks, as well
as armed insurgent activities. Drugs are therefore also a serious
threat to international peace, stability and security.
4. Heroin and other opiates are the most harmful drugs used in
Europe, and are the cause of three-quarters of drug-related deaths.
5. Afghanistan is by far the main source of heroin and other
opiates consumed in the Council of Europe member States. Europe,
including Russia, is the main target market for opiates from Afghanistan.
6. Despite many solemn declarations over the last few years,
the international community has so far failed to stop the flow of
heroin from Afghanistan. Europe continues to pay a high price for
this failure. Dozens of tonnes of heroin reach Europe every year,
and kill thousands of people.
7. The Parliamentary Assembly deems it to be of the utmost importance
to mobilise political support in Council of Europe member, observer
and partner States for a more active and efficient international
co-operation in:
7.1. combating
poppy cultivation and the production of heroin and other opiates
in Afghanistan;
7.2. dismantling the network of traffic of opiates from Afghanistan
to Europe, as well as the chains of distribution in Europe;
7.3. disrupting the channels of diversion and smuggling of
chemical precursors;
7.4. combating the laundering and re-injection into criminal
and terrorist activities of the proceeds of the illicit drugs trade.
8. The forthcoming withdrawal of the International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan by 2014 makes this task even more
imperative.
9. With this in view, the Assembly calls on the parliaments of
Council of Europe member, observer and partner States to urge their
governments:
9.1. as regards Afghanistan,
to:
9.1.1. make anti-drugs policy a priority in programmes
of co-operation with, and of assistance to, the Afghan Government;
9.1.2. strengthen Afghan law-enforcement agencies with a view
to disrupting channels of drug trafficking at source, with particular
emphasis on combating corruption;
9.1.3. increase support for the capacity building of law-enforcement
agencies in Afghanistan, and to step up training programmes for
Afghan law-enforcement staff;
9.1.4. step up joint operations with the relevant Afghan law-enforcement
agencies focusing on clandestine heroin-producing laboratories and
organised criminal groups involved in the drugs trade, and to combine
them with increased efforts aimed at integrated rural development,
building infrastructure and supporting farmers engaged in alternative
production;
9.1.5. assist Afghanistan in developing its economy and diversifying
agriculture so as to reduce dependence on revenues from the illicit
drugs trade, in line with the Lima Declaration and the United Nations
Guiding Principles on Alternative Development (November 2012);
9.1.6. provide full support to, and co-operate effectively in
the framework of, the Paris Pact Initiative aimed at combating opiates
originating from Afghanistan;
9.2. as regards the neighbouring countries, to:
9.2.1. increase
support for the capacity building of law-enforcement agencies of
the countries of central Asia, and step up training programmes for
central Asian law-enforcement personnel;
9.2.2. promote further anti-drugs co-operation at the regional
level, involving the countries of central Asia, Iran, Pakistan,
India and China, as well as existing co-ordination and co-operation frameworks;
9.3. to create conditions, by concluding specific agreements
as appropriate, for enhanced operational co-operation between law-enforcement
agencies, including information and intelligence sharing, exchange
of best practice and joint investigations;
9.4. to step up international co-operation against the diversion
of drug precursors, and consider ways to tighten the monitoring
of the acetic anhydride (AA) trade by establishing databases of,
and sharing information on, licit AA manufacturers, traders and
end-users;
9.5. to step up co-operation as regards the confiscation and
recovery of assets from the illicit drugs trade.
10. The Assembly strongly encourages Council of Europe member
States to sign and ratify, if they have not already done so, and
non-member States to accede to, the Council of Europe Convention
on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds
from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism (CETS No. 198).
11. The Assembly calls on member States to intensify co-operation
in countering the trafficking of drugs from, and of drug precursors
to, Afghanistan, as well as the laundering of proceeds from the
illicit drugs trade, in the framework of the relevant Council of
Europe mechanisms, such as the Co-operation Group to Combat Drug
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Drugs (the Pompidou Group), the
Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and the Committee of
Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and
the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL).
12. Finally, the Assembly underlines the importance of combining
policing measures against illegal drug trafficking and distribution
with efforts aimed at drug demand reduction, at social rehabilitation
of drug users – who at the same time are often drug dealers – and
at improving social conditions which favour drug use. In this context,
the Assembly believes that any attempts to legalise the use of narcotic
drugs run counter to these objectives and should therefore be rejected.