Article 16

SECRETARIAT

The secretariat services of the Commission and the Board shall be furnished by the Secretary-General.

Commentary

1. The 1925 and 1931 Conventions contained provisions regarding the secretariats of the two predecessor bodies of the International Narcotics Control Board, the Permanent Central Board and the Drug Supervisory Body. The 1925 Convention provided 1 that the Secretary-General of the League of Nations should appoint the secretary and staff of the Permanent Central Board on the nomination of the Board and subject to the approval of the Council of the League, while the 1931 Convention 2 required the SecretaryGeneral of the League to provide the secretariat of the Supervisory Body. No treaty provision was made for the secretariat services of the League's Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs, the predecessor of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs; those services were supplied by a unit of the League's secretariat.

2. These treaty functions of the Secretary-General and of the Council of the League were transferred by the 1946 Protocol to the Secretary-General and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, respectively. In 1946, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Permanent Central Board agreed 3 to establish a Joint Secretariat of the Board and Drug Supervisory Body, which served these two organs until they were replaced by the present International Narcotics Control Board in 1968.4 The Commission on Narcotic Drugs was and is being served by the Division of Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations Secretariat.

3. The existence of two separate, mutually independent secretariat units in the field of international narcotics control within the United Nations 5 has been the subject of controversy. On the one hand, the opinion has been expressed that such a secretariat arrangement is unsound from an administrative viewpoint, hampers co-ordination of work and facilitates duplication of effort, and that the Permanent Central Board did not and the International Narcotics Control Board does not need a separate secretariat of its own to secure its independent functioning, which could be guarded by other means and has been sufficiently protected by the relevant treaty provisions. s It has, on the other hand, been asserted that the Board needs a separate secretariat for the independent performance of its tasks, which include judicial functions, and that there has been no significant duplication of work between the two secretariat units. s These different opinions were also expressed at the Plenipotentiary Conference in 1961. Although the majority of the delegates was in favour of establishing a single secretariat for the two bodies, s the Conference adopted article 16, which, while it makes the Secretary-General responsible for furnishing the secretariat services of the Commission and the Board, permits him to make such arrangements as he considers appropriate, whether by the establishment of a single or of two separate secretariats. The secretariat services furnished by the Secretary-General must, however, be in accord with the arrangements made by the Council in consultation with the Board pursuant to article 9, paragraph 2 to ensure the full technical independence of that organ in carrying out its functions. Under the arrangements in force at the time of this writing, 10 provision is made for a separate secretariat serving the Board. 11
 

1 Article 20, second para.

2 Article 5, para. 6.

3 Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifteenth Session, Annexes, agenda item 50, document A/4603, para. 7.

4 Article 45, para. 2 of the Single Convention and resolution 1106 (XL) of the Council; see above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (a) and article 9, para. 2.

5 Secretariat functions relating to implementation of provisions of the narcotics treaties are also performed by a unit of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization.

6 First para. of article 20 of the 1925 Convention and article 9, para. 2 of the Single Convention; see document referred to in foot-note 3, paras. 11 and 15.

7 See also above, comments on article 9, para. 2 and article 14, para. 2.

8 An internal management survey of the two secretariats which took place in 1965 and which recommended the establishment of a single secretariat serving both the Commission and the Board found that there was no duplication of work. It recommended the amalgamation of the two secretariats on other grounds than those of duplication of work.

9 For the debate on the question at the Plenipotentiary Conference see Records, vol. I pp. 73-75, 98-100 and 114-120; see also documents E/CONF.34/L.10. Records, vol. 1I p. 37 and E/CONF.34/L.16, Records, vol. II p. 40.

10 Resolution 1196 (XLII) of the Economic and Social Council, dated 16 May 1967.

11 See above comments on article 9, para. 2; also see however Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Thirty-second Session, Annexes, agenda item 18, document E/3527, para. 70.