UN Authority Figures

UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs: Afghanistan

Afghanistan accounts for 90 percent of the world's heroin, and both the Taliban and the official Afghan government have battled over the lucrative drug trade. Photo: An Afghan policeman in a poppy field.
Source: The New York Times, April 6, 2016

Mission of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs: "The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) reviews and analyzes the global drug situation, considering the interrelated issues of prevention of drug abuse, rehabilitation of drug users and supply and trafficking in illicit drugs. It takes action through resolutions and decisions." (UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs website, "Mandate")

Term of office: 2018-2021

Afghanistan Record on "supply and trafficking in illicit drugs":
"Reports indicated corruption remained endemic throughout society, and flows of money from the military, international donors, and the drug trade continued to exacerbate the problem... Governors with reported involvement in corruption, the drug trade,... continued to receive executive appointments and served with relative impunity... Forced labor occurred. Men, women, and children were forced into poppy cultivation, ... and drug trafficking... . Children were also heavily engaged in the worst forms of child labor in... transnational drug smuggling... Provincial police sometimes engaged in corruption at police checkpoints and from the narcotics industry... Some media observers claimed journalists reporting on ... local officials' involvement in narcotics trafficking engaged in self-censorship due to fear of violent retribution by provincial police officials and powerful families..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights 2016, Afghanistan)