Drug law reform continues developing in the right direction in several Latin American and Caribbean countries. In Jamaica, for example, a law legalizing the cultivation and consumption of ganja for medicinal, religious and research purposes came into force, as well as the decriminalisation of possession for personal use. Jamaica also spoke out at the UN Thematic Debate in New York. On May 7th, the minister addressed the UN High Level Thematic Debate on international drug policy, highlighting Jamaica’s perspectives on drug control policies and participating in a debate that encourages open and inclusive discussions. Amongst the outcomes Jamaica would like to see from UNGASS is “the establishment of an Expert Advisory Group to review the UN drug policy control architecture, its system-wide coherence, its treaty inconsistencies and its legal tension with cannabis regulations.”
TNI turns 40 in 2014 and has received many birthday wishes from social movements, academics, activists, grassroots community groups, journalists, writers and policy makers. We are proud to have worked alongside them in a struggle for a more just world and deeply touched by their praise for our work.
First TNI director (1973-75) professor Eqbal Ahmad passes away. TNI's work on drug policies, Burma and Bretton Woods' Institutions deepens. TNI holds 25th anniversary Festival of Ideas.
The resounding victory of the National League for Democracy in the November general election has raised hopes in Myanmar and around the world that, finally, the country could be on the road towards peace and democracy. Sadly, there have been too many failures in the past for simple optimism now. During the past half-century, there have been important highpoints before when expectations were raised that the national armed forces, known as Tatmadaw, would restore democratic rights to the people and nationwide peace might spread in the country.
TNI has been involved in international drugs policy work since the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS). This new report summarises the lessons of 10 years of work in this field, emphasising drug controls that respect human rights: the rights of farmers caught in the illicit economy to a life in dignity; decriminalisation of drug use; and the promotion of harm reduction approaches where they are proven to save lives.
In order for fragile states and the concept of state weakness to be properly understood, they need to be considered in the contexts of political economy and world history. Four apparently disparate cases – Guatemala, Haiti, Kosovo and Angola – show surprising similarities, and highlight common lessons for international state-building efforts.
In January 1974, Eqbal Ahmad wrote minister of Education in the Netherlands to inform him of the establishment of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. This is the original letter.
Treading into a political and diplomatic confrontation it tried to avoid, the US has decided to declassify some secret government documents on the killing and torture conducted by the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet.
