Effective border security and the fight against drugs trafficking are major challenges for the Central Asian region and each have direct effects on the countries of the European Union and the CIS. Together the BOMCA-CADAP programmes represent the practical expression of the EU’s strategic interest in supporting the security and stability of the Central Asian region.
The programme was established by the Central Asia Border Security Initiative (CABSI) – a consortium of EU member states in 2002. Each year the CABSI meets to review the progress of BOMCA and discuss its future direction. These meetings were conducted in Austria from 2002 through 2006. The 2007 CABSI meeting was held in Kyrgyzstan and the 2008 meeting took place in Kazakhstan.
The Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP) is financed by the European Union and implemented by United Nations Development Programme. The programme began in 2003 and current Phase IV of the Programme is ongoing in 2009.
CADAP IV is a continuation and expansion of previous phases of the programme. The objective of CADAP is to support the EU Drug Strategy in “preventing and reducing drug use, dependence, and drug-related harms to health and society” through the gradual adoption by Central Asian beneficiary authorities of EU good practices in the field of drug policies and by building capacities within governments and civil societies to provide sustainable continuation of CADAP activities.
CADAP covers both supply and demand reduction aspects in line with the recommendations of the Central Asia Indicative programme 2005-2006 and the “European Union Drugs Strategy 2005-2012”. After implementation of previous phases in all five countries of Central Asia, CADAP IV is focused on regionalization of projects in order to create a common approach to drug related problems by establishing and reinforcing cooperation between Central Asian Governments and civil societies (NGOs).
The programme has several objectives: to foster a regional, development-oriented drug control strategy that ensures a sustained reduction of drug consumption and trafficking in line with European Union best practices. These best practices can be summarized as follows:
- To base drug policy on science and research, not ideology
- To base supply policies on intelligence/risk analysis
- To encourage regional cooperation among law enforcement bodies
- To adopt model legislative/regulation framework as a prerequisite for drug action
- To base all drug policies on respect for human rights
- To prevent drug abuse but not to criminalize drug addicts
- To develop harm-reduction measures for long-term addicts
- To balance the response between drug and demand
- Regional in nature in order to develop cooperation
- Long-term and institution-building in approach
- Concerned with establishing good practice through demonstration project
