Friday, March 14, 2026 (Vienna, Austria) – Between March 9th-13th, Youth RISE participated in the 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the most important drug policy making body of the United Nations. CND remains a space dominated by older generations who often determine policies on behalf of young people, a group that is often not properly represented in this and other international forums.
Our goal this year, as stated in our intervention at the plenary, was to challenge the punitive approach to drug control that many Member States take in order to protect young people. State efforts to combat organised crime and drug trafficking has not only exacerbated violence in many regions, it has locked out young people from key health and social services, preventing them from living safer, healthier, and freer lives.
This year’s session brought together over 900 civil society representatives from across the globe, reflecting both the significance of the forum and the urgency of reform. CND69 took place in a particularly challenging political climate, marked by increasing polarization, the erosion of consensus, and growing resistance from some Member States, led by the United States, to language on human rights, gender, and harm reduction.
Nearly ten years after the 2016 UNGASS commitment to create “a better tomorrow for today’s youth,” CND was an opportunity to reflect on remaining questions on how the lives of young people, particularly young people who use durgs (YPWUD), continue to be impacted by punitive drug laws.
Youth RISE involvement in side events
Throughout the week, Youth RISE organised multiple events and participated in more, bringing in global youth perspectives to a variety of topics. We co-organized one event with the Global Commission on Drug Policy, with the co-sponsorship of the Government of Australia, Czechia, and Mexico, alongside UNICEF, OHCHR, UNDP and UNAIDS and 14 other allied organizations on innovative youth-centered interventions for health systems, assessing progress since UNGASS 2016 and highlight the urgent need for youth-led, rights-based health responses.
We co-sponsored seven further events, ranging from how to integrate human rights frameworks into prevention strategies and alternatives to incarceration, how to achieve global HIV eradication targets, community-based care, reforming drug scheduling to facilitate research and the intersection of drug policy and climate justice. The breadth of our partners across these events, from several Member States to dozens of civil society organisations, highlights the momentum behind meaningfully including youth voices in drug-related discussions. We’d like to thank OHCHR, SSDP USA, REDUC, Safer Youth Norway, UNAIDS and the International Coalition for Drug Policy Reform for hosting such meaningful discussions.
Youth RISE was also invited to speak at two key events. We were very excited for our invitation by the Brazilian Government to speak alongside UNODC, the Brazilian National Secretary for Drug Policies, the Uruguayan National Drug Board and others to elaborate on what a comprehensive drug prevention system looks like. Here, we focused on the fact that drug policies can create harms for youth that often overshadow the harms of drug use – meaning we need an amplified understanding of what harms a good drug policy should prevent.
Our participation in Dianova International’s event on intersectionality in action allowed us to underscore the lack of age-appropriate resources for YPWUD, and how to meaningfully engage us in research, advocacy and policymaking. We shared the floor with the European Union Drugs Agency, the European AIDS Treatment Group and other distinguished experts. We’re thankful for these opportunities to share our work and look forward to future collaborations.
Youth participation in informal dialogues
Throughout the week, Youth RISE had the chance to engage with the WHO, UNODC, OHCHR, UNAIDS, UNDP, the INCB and the CND Chair. In these informal dialogues, we raised several questions on:
- the need for digital harm reduction in an increasingly online world, the need for technical guidance amongst non-opioid new psychoactive substances, and to study new emerging substances raising issues such as the need for digital harm reduction in online spaces, encouraging Member States to translate human right standards into concrete national action plans, how to better integrate human rights frameworks into prevention-focused interventions.
UNAIDS, UNDP, and OHCHR all referenced Youth RISE in their responses to other organisations regarding young people, recognising the role of youth-led organisations like ours in reaching marginalised groups and shaping policy.
Key meetings attended by Youth RISE
Alongside our participation in informal dialogues, Youth RISE was part of several separate meetings with key international institutions.
- Our continued participation in the VNGOC Youth Working Group highlighted current challenges faced by civil society advocates, opportunities for greater collaboration between youth groups, and how to ensure youth are meaningfully engaged in the creation of drug policies and interventions.
- In an exchange with the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, we underscored egregious practices that deprive young people of their liberty through forced rehabilitation.
- At the UN Strategic Coordination Group on Drug Use, HIV, Health, and Human Rights Meeting the attendees reviewed the new draft workplan for the group and discussed CND engagements.
- In a conversation with a Member of the UN Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER), we spotlighted how drug criminalization often amplifies existing inequalities for young people of African descent, while also reducing access to health services.
- We provided input to an upcoming report with the OHCHR on drug policy, women and girls to demonstrate the need for gender-specific as well as age-specific interventions to prevent drug-related harms.
The importance of Full Spectrum Harm Reduction
Across our interactions in CND, we consistently advocated for Full Spectrum Harm Reduction, recognising the broader social and structural factors shaping young people’s health from gender, housing, to exposure to violence. We also challenged narrow, abstinence-focused definitions of prevention, calling instead for approaches that delay initiation while ensuring access to harm reduction and care.
CND69 made one thing clear: while youth presence in global drug policy spaces is growing, it does not yet translate into power. At a time when human rights are increasingly under threat, meaningful youth engagement is essential. Youth RISE remains committed to building a coordinated global youth movement to ensure that policies affecting young people are shaped by and with them, not for them.