CND Establishes 19-Member Expert Panel for 2029 Global Drug Policy Review

UNODC News

Published March 12th, 2026

Detected April 7th, 2026

Summary

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) announced the 19 members of its newly established Expert Panel at its sixty-ninth session. The Panel, created under Resolution 68/6, will prepare recommendations for the 2029 global drug policy review aimed at enhancing implementation of international drug control treaties. Allan Rock (Canada) and Natalie Yu-Lin Morris-Sharma (Singapore) were appointed as Co-Chairs of the Panel.

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What changed

The CND has formally established a 19-member multidisciplinary Expert Panel comprising independent experts selected by the Commission, UN Secretary-General, International Narcotics Control Board, and WHO Director-General. The Panel's mandate under Resolution 68/6 is to develop clear, specific, and actionable recommendations for enhancing international drug control treaty implementation and achieving international drug policy commitments, with findings to support the Commission's 2029 review.

For compliance professionals, this announcement represents preliminary administrative activity with no immediate compliance obligations. Organizations with interests in international drug policy should monitor Panel proceedings and anticipated recommendations. The Panel's work may inform future policy directions at the international level, though any resulting recommendations would require subsequent Commission action to have binding effect. No specific regulatory changes or compliance deadlines arise from this establishment announcement.

What to do next

Monitor for future Panel recommendations and reports
Track developments related to the 2029 global drug policy review
Review Resolution 68/6 for context on Panel mandate

Source document (simplified)

PRESS RELEASE

Commission on Narcotic Drugs establishes Expert Panel

to contribute to the 2029 global drug policy review

Vienna, 12 March 2026

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), at its sixty-ninth session, announced today the members of the new Expert Panel established to provide recommendations for the global drug policy review to take place under the Commission in 2029.

Welcoming the selection of the Expert Panel, H.E. Ambassador Andranik Hovhannisyan (Armenia), Chair of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs said: “ I am confident that the collective expertise and experience represented in this Panel will contribute to informed and constructive reflections in support of the Commission’s work. The Commission looks forward with interest to the recommendations that will emerge from the Panel’s work.”

In Resolution 68/6 on “strengthening the international drug control system: a path to effective implementation”, adopted at last year’s session, the Commission decided to establish under its auspices a multidisciplinary panel of 19 independent experts. acting in their personal capacity, to prepare a clear, specific and actionable set of recommendations aimed at enhancing the implementation of the international drug control treaties, as well as the obligations of other relevant international instruments and the achievement of all international drug policy commitments, with a view to contributing to the review to be conducted by the Commission in 2029.

The Panel comprises ten members selected by the Commission, five members selected by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, three members selected by the International Narcotics Control Board and one member selected by the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

The following experts were selected to serve on the Panel (in alphabetical order):

César ARCE RIVAS (Paraguay)
Pavel BÉM (Czech Republic)
Yacine BOUMRAH (Algeria)
Cornelis DE JONCHEERE (Kingdom of the Netherlands)
Michael FARRELL (Australia)
Alexis GOOSDEEL (Belgium)
Olga GVOZDETSKA (Ukraine)
Alberto HART (Peru)
Adeeba KAMARULZAMAN (Malaysia)
Natalie Yu-Lin MORRIS-SHARMA (Singapore)
Jagjit PAVADIA (India)
Virginia Patton PRUGH (United States of America)
Allan ROCK (Canada)
Milton ROMANÍ GERNER (Uruguay)
Khaled SHAMAA (Egypt)
Xiaojing SHAN (China)
Elīna ŠTEINERTE (Latvia)
Khalid TINASTI (Morocco)
Renán VILLACÍS (Ecuador)

The Secretary-General appointed Allan ROCK (Canada) to serve as one of the Co-Chairs of the Panel. At the ongoing session, the Commission appointed Natalie Yu-Lin MORRIS-SHARMA (Singapore) to serve as the other Co-Chair. With these appointments, the Expert Panel is now complete. The UNODC Secretariat to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs will support the work of the Panel.