Report of the First Senior Official Meeting (SOM) on
Drug Control Matter (20-22 December 2005)

The First Senior Official Meeting (SOM) on Drug Control Matter was held on 20-22 December 2005 in Turkish International Academy Against Anti-Narcotics and Organized Crime (TADOC), Ankara, hosted by the Republic of Turkey. The Delegates from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Turkmenistan and the ECO Secretariat attended the meeting. The meeting deliberated on the status of the implementation of ECO Action plan on Drug Control and while emphasizing the validity of the Action plan in principle recommended its revision in order to make it more compatible with the emerging trends and challenges related to the drug control in the region. The meeting observed that while revising the Action Plan the following point may be taken as recommendation.

i)                                        The need to deal with the new illicit drugs and chemical precursors;

ii)                                      Inter-relation of various categories of organized crime i.e. drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, trans-border crimes, cyber crime;

iii)                                     To enhance the capacity of DCCU, with the possibility of its transformation into a Regional Center for Drug Control and Organized Crime (RCDCOC), to enable it to perform the duties and responsibilities arising from this Action Plan;

iv)                                    To study the legal structures of the member states on drug control and allied crimes with a view to explore the possibility of establishing a suitable regional legal framework on the subject area;

v)                                      More emphasis on the issue of joint training of officials and experts of the ECO member states both at national and regional level on supply and demand reduction;

vi)                                    To expand cooperation and sharing of information on border control measures among member states;

vii)                                   To establish an implementation and monitoring mechanism to ensure effectiveness and efficiency of the plan;

viii)                                 To define a multi-dimension source of financial resources to achieve the over arching policy goal;

ix)                                    The plan should be in line with the provision of DCCU section in the ECO Vision 2015.

The SOM agreed to establish a Working Group comprising senior officials/experts both at policy and operational level of the member states to revise the Action Plan based on the recommendations of SOM and present a draft revised Plan of Action through the Council of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to the 16^th Meeting of the Council of Ministers (COM) for approval.  Member States were requested to send their proposals for the revision of the Action Plan to the ECO Secretariat before the meeting of the Working Group.

The Senior Officials of Drug Control and related matters agreed to hold their next meeting in the year 2006, in order to follow up the implementation of the decisions taken at the first SOM and other issues related to drug control and allied crimes. Date and venue of the meeting will be determined by the Secretariat in consultation with the member states. Also, the representatives of the member states who participated to meeting thanked the Government of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish International Academy Against Drugs and Organized Crime (TADOC) for the excellent arrangements made to hold the meeting and warm hospitality extended to the delegates. They also thanked ECO/DCCU for its valuable efforts in making necessary preparation for the meeting.