Comisión Mundial Independiente

On June 18th, 2003, 50 people from 16 different countries and all scopes of knowledge on the ‘drug’ issue came together at the Mama Coca Workshop under the “Crops Issue” on occasion of the Thematic World Social Forum in Cartagena (Colombia). They joined in a proposal to create an Independent Global Commission (IGC) −autonomous of governments and multilateral agencies− to assess ‘drug’ policies from a social perspective. The basic criteria adopted for the Commission is the defense of Human Rights and civil liberties of growers and users. In this sense, one of the goals would be to launch a horizontal social debate regarding the criminalization of peasant and small-crop growers of coca, cannabis and poppy and the conditions and measures affecting users. Towards this end, a first step would be to vulgarize the cultural, medical, industrial and nutritional values of the coca, cannabis and poppy plants, urge their withdrawal from the United Nations’ list of forbidden substances and advocate for the application of the Precautionary Principle as concerns hazards to health, environment and rural milieus. The Independent Global Commission would work hand in hand with national technical commissions and with community-building encounters in the different countries such as citizens’ forums and roundtables. Asia, Africa, Europe, the United States and Latin America, all five continents, shall be represented and the Commission will establish dialogue with national and international governmental bodies charged with the design and implementation of ‘drug’ policies in view of informing and weighing at decision-making levels.

On June 19^th, these social organizations, academics, human rights activists, peasant organizations and experts (attached list) met once again for further appraisals and to set up an Impulse Committee (IC) charged with making the Commission feasible. The Impulse Committee represents a great diversity of knowledge, nationalities and approaches to the issue and its aim is to contribute to a horizontal process among the Global Commission’s autonomous participants so that they might −in their own countries, communities or regions− carry out −those initiatives, projects, meetings, forums, mobilizations, debates, gathering of the vast stock of information available and research− they consider valuable towards a common purpose.

In order for the Impulse Committee to start communicating as a group, a Coordinating Team (CT) was proposed. Its first role would be to submit a draft of a new document incorporating the original proposal and the different views put forward by the members of Impulse Committee for feedback towards building the Independent Global Commission. The members of the Coordinating Team come from different countries, −France, Brazil, Colombia, Pakistan, Cuba, Italy, Spain, India, Peru, and the United States− and scopes: Alain Labrousse; Ana Maria Motta; Henry Salgado from the Cinep; Ecofondo (represented by Elsa Nivia and Rafael Colmenares); Iqbal Khan; Jorge Atilio Silva; Luis Suárez Salazar; Luiz Paulo Guanabara; Mama Coca (represented by María Mercedes Moreno and Darío González Posso); Marco Perduca; Martín Barriuso; Molly Charles; Ricardo Soberón; and Sharda Sekaran.

* This proposal has been taken up in the Mama Coca Workshop from prior initiatives: “International Meeting on Peace, Human Rights and IHL in Colombia” (Costa Rica, October 2000); II National Meeting of Citizens’ Roundtables for a peace Agenda (Bogotá, March 30, 2001); III Plenary of the Civil Society’s Permanent Peace Assembly (Rionegro, Colombia July 2001); “Talks on the Andean Regional Initiative, the Counternarcotics Strategy and Cocalero Movements of the Andean Region”, CINEP (Bogotá, August 2001).

** In accordance with the minutes presented by Elsa Nivia.

Impulse Committee

Independent Global Commission

Name	Organization	Country
Adam Isaacson	Center for International Policy (CIP)	USA
Alain Labrousse	Founder Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues (OGD)	France
Alejandro Angulo, CJ	Director Center for Popular Research and Education (Cinep)	Colombia
Alejandro Mejía	Peasant Association of Beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform (Acbra)	Colombia
Alexis Ponce	Permanent Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights (APDDH)	Ecuador
Ana María Motta	Coordinator Agrarian Reference Nucleus, Universidad (Publica) Federal Fluminense	Brazil
Andrew Epstein	Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)	USA
Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt	John Mordaunt Trust	Great Britain
Anthony Henman	Anthropologist, author Mama Coca	Great Britain
Aura María Puyana	Consultant	Colombia
Baldomero Cáceres	Social Psychologist	Peru
Camilo González	President Institute for Peace and Development Studies (Indepaz)	Colombia
Darío Gonzalez	Co-coordinator Mama Coca	Colombia
Don Wirtshafter	Hempery, industrial hemp	USA
Elsa Nivia	Pesticide Net- Rapalmira
Eve Hillary	Medical Professional	Australia
Francisco Thoumi	Academic	Colombia
Gilberta Acselrad	Citizenship and Human Rights Program University Estado de Rio de Janeiro	Brazil
Guilhem Fabre	MOST Unesco Program	France
Giselda Turienzo	Presidenta Red de Reducción de Daños
Henry Salgado	Center for Popular Research and Education (Cinep)	Colombia
Eileen Rosin	Washington Office on Latin America (Wola)	USA
Hugo Cabieses	Drug Policy Consultant	Peru
Iqbal Khan	Bureau Chief Daily Times	Pakistan
Ibán de Rementería	Researcher	Chile
Joep Oomen	Encod	Belgium
Jorge Atilio Silva	Koinonia	Brazil
Luis Alberto López	Peasant Association of Beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform (Acbra)	Colombia
Luis Carlos Acero	National Peasant Council	Colombia
Luis Suárez Salazar	Academic	Cuba
Luiz Paulo Guanabara	Psicotropicus	Brazil
Marco Cappato	European Parliament	Italy
Marco Perduca	Antiprohibitionist League	Italy
María Clemencia Ramírez	Anthropologist	Colombia
Maria Mercedes Moreno	Co-coordinator Mama Coca	Colombia
Martín Jelsma	Transnational Institute (TNI)	Holland
Martín Barriuso	Ailaket	Spain
Molly Charles	Psychologist	India
Nancy Obregón	Sub secretary National Confederation of Peru’s Agricultural Cocalero Producers (Conpaccp)	Peru
Nohora Cecilia Velásquez	National Peasant and Indigenous Women’s Association (Anmucic)	Colombia
Oscar López	Biologist	Colombia
Pedro Arenas	Chamber of Representatives	Colombia
Peter Cohen	Center for Drug Research (Cedro), University of Amsterdam	Holland
Phil Smith	Drug Reform Coordination Netwrok (DRCNet)	USA
Pien Metaal	Transnational Institute (TNI)	Holland
Rafael Colmenares	Ecofondo	Colombia
Ricardo Soberón	Borders Program	Peru
Ricardo Vargas	Accion Andina	Colombia
Riley Marline	Witnesses for Peace	USA
Rodrigo Uprimny	Auxiliary Magistrate Constitutional Court	Colombia
Sanho Tree	Institute for Policy Studies	USA
Sara de Haro	Freelance journalist	France
Sharda Sekaran	Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)	USA
Victor Orduna	Pulso Bolivia	Bolivia