| Hans-Günter Meyer-Thompson | International
The UN review of the international status of the coca leaf
The UN review of the international status of the coca leaf
The coca leaf has been at the centre of a longstanding tension between the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the punitive global drug control regime. In July 2023, Bolivia officially requested that the World Health Organization (WHO) initiate a critical review of the coca leaf’s status under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The review is a pivotal opportunity to address decades of colonial and racist policies that sought to eradicate the plant and its traditional uses; denying the cultural, medicinal and spiritual significance of the coca leaf for so many Andean-Amazonian communities. (IDPC, UK, Februar 2025)