UNODC Website Hacked

international | crime and justice | news report Saturday March 07, 2009 04:42 by dissident

Reports are just coming in over the wires that the website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has been hacked.A dummy page , (http://www.unodc.net/Jobs.html) has been uploaded.which has a message everyone with an interest in drugs policy should read, and then act upon.

The message reads as follows;

In fact Costa has not made a statement supporting these life-saving measures and it is likely that the Political Declaration, which will shape global drug policy for the next ten years will have no reference to harm reduction.

This website is part of a campaign to expose the damage caused by misguided United Nations drugs policy. It is in no way endorsed by the United Nations.

Ten years after the UN based their strategy on the slogan “A drug free world: we can do it!” cocaine production has increased by 20% and opium production by 120%.

Despite restrictive drug laws and extraordinary levels of incarceration, drugs remain completely out of control. Efforts to reduce the harm caused by drugs are repeatedly undermined by the UN’s refusal to pursue harm-reduction policies.

Cheap public health measures are easy to deliver and extremely effective in reducing the spread of blood born viruses - particularly HIV – among injecting drug users.
What can possibly be wrong with taking practical measures to reduce the harms associated with drug use? The results of denying access to these proven public health measures can no longer be termed ‘unintended consequences’.

During the second week of March 2009 the UN will hold a meeting in Vienna for high-ranking government officials to review the past ten years of global drug control efforts and to adopt a new Political Declaration for the next ten years. We think it is time for:

1. No more stupid slogans
2. Replacing dogma with science
3. a UNODC commitment to save lives through harm reduction
4. A real improvement in the control of drugs

Dear Mr Costa
It would be nothing less than criminal if all proven public health measures to reduce HIV among injecting drug users were not featured uppermost in the Political Declaration that will arise out of the forthcoming High Level Meeting on drugs to be held in Vienna in March.

If you agree with the above please click hereThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to email Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and copy in his boss Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki Moon.

At the very bottom of the page, is a disclaimer of sorts, which reads;

If you object to this website or have concerns about its content, please contact us at reducingharm@gmail.com

All I know at the moment, is the fact this action is something to do with a European group who are protesting over a lack of harm reduction measures which exist in the European drugs debate.

I'll keep you informed as things pan out.

NB. Please understand I'm working in the dark here for the most part, so if something turns out to be inaccurate please forgive me, but rest assured, the website of the UNODC, has been hacked on the evening of Friday March 6th.

More as it happens..