WORLD MAYORS' CONFERENCE ON DRUGS FEBRUARY 5-6, 2009
The City of Gothenburg, Sweden has the honour to invite you to the second World Mayors' Conference, together with the 16th ECAD Mayors' Conference, on February 5-6, 2009.
The Conference will focus on the importance of maintaining restrictive and humane drug policies, both nationally and internationally.
In 2009, it will be 100 years since the first international conference on drugs in Shanghai, China, which lead to development of an international drug control system.
Today, it is the three United Nations conventions on narcotic drugs which regulate the international drug control. These conventions are presently under considerable pressure from drug liberal forces around the world.
The aim of the World Mayors' Conference in Gothenburg is to manifest its full support of the UN conventions ahead of the Fifty-second session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and its high-level segment, scheduled to take place in Vienna on March 11-20, 2009. At this high-level Vienna meeting the international community will assess the progress made in reaching the UNGASS goals and targets set in 1998 and consider further future action by the international community on the world drug problem.
We would like the World Mayors' Conference on Drugs in Gothenburg to be a forum for exchanging experiences and to make it possible for agreement around the Manifest.
Among the key-note speakers is Antonio Maria Costa, UN's highest official for drug control.
The Conference is under the Patronage of H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden who will open the conference.
Among the high-level speakers are:
Hon. Raúl Antonio Gómez Guerrero, Mayor of the city of San Ramón, Costa Rica, who will present the EU LAC Initiative - the Initiative of European Union and Latin America and Caribbean Strategic Partnership;
Cllr. Nondumiso Maphazi, Hon. Executive Mayor, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (Port Elizabeth), South Africa;
Ambassador Jan Eliasson - until July 1, 2008 Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Darfur; President of the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly 2005-2006; Sweden's Ambassador to the United States, 2000-2005; Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden in 2006.
We will also show best practice in the anti-drug field work in Gothenburg and West Sweden, as the year 2009 has special focus on work against drugs.
Welcome!
Jörgen Linder, Lord Mayor of Gothenburg
Conference programme and booking forms is available at http://www.ecad.net/ and www.goteborg.se/worldmayorsconference
ECAD conferences are free of charge.
BOOKING DEADLINE JANUARY 22ND
