this Convention, the Board shall have the right to ask for explanations from the Government of the country or region in question. Subject to the right of the Board to call the attention of the Parties, the Council and the Commission to the matter referred to in sub-paragraph (c) below, it shall treat as confidential a request for information or an explanation by a government under this subparagraph. (b) After taking action under sub-paragraph (a), the Board, if satisfied that it is necessary to do so, may call upon the Government concerned to adopt such remedial measures as shall seem under the circumstances to be necessary for the execution of the provisions of this Convention. (c) If the Board finds that the Government concerned has failed to given satisfactory explanations when called upon to do so under sub-paragraph (a), or has failed to adopt any remedial measures which it has been called upon to take under sub-paragraph (b), it may call the attention to the Parties, the Council and the Commission to the matter. 2. The Board, when calling the attention of the Parties, the Council and the Commission to a matter in accordance with paragraph 1(c), may, if it is satisfied that such a course is necessary, recommend to the Parties that they stop the export, import, or both, of particular psychotropic substances, from or to the country or region concerned, either for a designated period or until the Board shall be satisfied as to the situation in that country or region. The State concerned may bring the matter before the Council. 3. The Board shall have the right to publish a report on any matter dealt with under the provisions of this article, and communicate it to the Council, which shall forward it to all Parties. If the Board publishes in this report a decision taken under this article or any information relating thereto, it shall also publish therein the views of the Government concerned if the latter so requests. 4. If in any case a decision of the Board which is published under this article is not unanimous, the views of the minority shall be stated. 5. Any State shall be invited to be represented at a meeting of the Board at which a question directly interesting it is considered under this article. 6. Decisions of the Board under this article shall be taken by a two-thirds majority of the whole number of the Board. 7. The provisions of the above paragraphs shall also apply if the Board has reason to believe that the aims of this Convention are being seriously endangered as a result of decision taken by a Party under paragraph 7 of article 2. ARTICLE 20 Measures against the abuse of psychotropic substances 1. The Parties shall take all practicable measures for the prevention of abuse of psychotropic substances and for the early identification, treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of the persons involved, and shall co-ordinate their efforts to these ends. 2. The Parties shall as far as possible promote the training of personnel in the treatment, after-care, rehabilitation and social reintegration of abuses of psychotropic substances. 3. The Parties shall assist persons whose work so requires to gain an understanding of the problems of abuse of psychotropic substances and of its prevention, and shall also promote such understanding among the general public if there is a risk that abuse of such substances will become widespread. ARTICLE 21 Action against the illicit traffic Having due regard to their constitutional, legal and administrative systems, the Parties shall: (a) make arrangements at the national level for the co-ordination of preventive and repressive action against the illicit traffic; to this end they may usefully designate an appropriate agency responsible for such co-ordination; (b) assist each other in the campaign against the illicit traffic in psychotropic substances, and in particular immediately transmit, through the diplomatic channel or the competent authorities designated by the Parties for this purpose, to the other Parties directly concerned, a copy of any report addressed to the Secretary-General under article 16 in connextion with the discovery of a case of illicit traffic or a seizure; (c) co-operate closely with each other and with the competent international organizations of which they are members with a view to maintaining a co-ordinated campaign against the illicit traffic; (d) ensure that international co-operation between the appropriate agencies be conducted in an expeditious manner; and (e) ensure that, where legal papers are transmitted internationally for the purpose of judicial proceedings, the transmittal be effected in an expeditious manner to the bodies designated by the Parties; this requirement shall be without prejudice to the right of a Party to require that legal papers be sent to it through the diplomatic channel. ARTICLE 22 Penal provisions 1. (a) Subject to its constitutional limitations, each Party shall treat as a punishable offence, when committed intentionally, any action contrary to a law or regulation adopted in pursuance of its obligations under this Convention, and shall ensure that serious offences shall be liable to adequate punishment, particularly by imprisonment or other penalty of deprivation of liberty. (b) Notwithstanding the preceding sub-paragraph, when abusers of psychotropic substances have committed such offences, the Parties may provide, either as an alternative to conviction or punishment or in addition to punishment, that such abusers undergo measures of treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation and social reintegration in conformity with paragraph 1 of article 20. 2. Subject to the constitutional limitations of a Party, its legal system and domestic law. (a)(i) if a series of related actions constituting offences under paragraph 1 has been committed in different countries, each of them shall be treated as a distinct offence; (ii) intentional participation in, conspiracy to commit and attempts to commit, any of such offences, and preparatory acts and financial operations in connection with the offences referred to in this article, shall be punishable offences as provided in paragraph 1; (iii) foreign convictions for such offences shall be taken into account for the purpose of establishing recidivism; and (iv) serious offences heretofore referred to committed either by nationals or by foreigners shall be prosecuted by the Party in whose territory the offence was committed, or by the Party in whose territory the offender is found if extradition is not acceptable in conformity with the law of the Party to which application is made, and if such offender has not already been prosecuted and judgment given. (b) It is desirable that the offences referred to in paragraph 1 and paragraph 2(a)(ii) be included as extradition crimes in any extradition treaty which has been or may hereafter be concluded between any of the Parties, and, as between any of the Parties which do not make extradition conditional on the existence of a treaty or on reciprocity, be recognized as extradition crimes; provided that extradition shall be granted in conformity with the law of the Party to which application is made, and that the Party shall have the right to refuse to effect the arrest or grant the extradition in cases where the competent authorities consider that the offence is not sufficiently serious. 3. Any psychotropic substance or other substance, as well as any equipment, used in or intended for the commission of any of the offences referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be liable to seizure and confiscation. 4. The provisions of this article shall be subject to the provisions of the domestic law of the Party concerned on questions of jurisdiction. 5. Nothing contained in this article shall affect the principle that the offences to which it refers shall be defined, prosecuted and punished in conformity with the domestic law of a Party. ARTICLE 23 Application of stricter control measures than those required by this Convention A Party may adopt more strict or severe measures of control than those provided by this Convention if, in its opinion, such measures are desirable or necessary for the protection of the public health and welfare. ARTICLE 24 Expenses of international organs incurred in administering the provisions of the Convention The expenses of the Commission and the Board in carrying out their respective functions under this Convention shall be borne by the United Nations in such manner as shall be decided by the General Assembly. The Parties which are not Members of the United Nations shall contribute to these expenses such amounts as the General Assembly finds equitable and assesses from time to time after consultation with the Governments of these Parties. ARTICLE 25 Procedure for admission, signature, ratification and accession 1. Members of the United Nations, States not Members of the United Nations which are members of a specialized agency of the United Nations or of the International Atomic Energy Agency or Parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and any other State invited by the Council, may become Parties to this Convention: (a) by signing it; or (b) by ratifying it after signing it subject to ratification; or (c) by acceding to it. 2. The Convention shall be open for signature until 1 January 1972 inclusive. Thereafter it shall be open for accession. 3. Instruments of ratification or accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General. ARTICLE 26 Entry into force 1. The Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day after forty of the States referred to in paragraph 1 of article 25 have signed it without reservation of ratification or have deposited their instruments of ratification or accession. 2. For any other State signing without reservation of ratification, or depositing an instrument of ratification or accession after the last signature or deposit referred to in the preceding paragraph, the Convention shall enter into force on the ninetieth day following the date of its signature or deposit of its instrument of ratification or accession. ARTICLE 27 The Convention shall apply to all non-metropolitan territories for the international relations of which any Party is responsible except where the previous consent of such a territory is required by the Constitution of the Party or of the territory concerned, or required by custom. In such a case the Party shall endeavour to secure the needed consent of the territory within the shortest period possible, and when the consent is obtained the Party shall notify the Secretary-General. The Convention shall apply to the territory or territories named in such a notification from the date of its receipt by the Secretary-General. In those cases where the previous consent of the non-metropolitan territory is not required, the Party concerned shall, at the time of signature, ratification or accession, declare the non-metropolitan territory or territories to which this Convention applies. ARTICLE 28 Regions for the purposes of this Convention 1. Any Party may notify the Secretary-General that, for the purposes of this Convention, its territory is divided into two or more regions, or that two or more of its regions are consolidated into a single region. 2. Two or more Parties may notify the Secretary-General that, as the result of the establishment of a customs union between them, those Parties constitute a region for the purposes of this Convention. 3. Any notification under paragraph 1 or 2 shall take effect on 1 January of the year following the year in which the notification was made. ARTICLE 29 1. After the expiry of two years from the date of the coming into force of this Convention any Party may, on its own behalf or on behalf of a territory for which it has international responsibility, and which has withdrawn its consent given in accordance with article 27, denounce this Convention by an instrument in writing deposited with the Secretary-General. 2. The denunciation, if received by the Secretary-General on or before the first day of July of any year, shall take effect on the first day of January of the succeeding year, and if received after the first day of July it shall take effect as if it had been received on or before the first day of July in the succeeding year. 3. The Convention shall be terminated if, as a result of denunciations made in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2, the conditions for its coming into force as laid down in paragraph 1 of article 26 cease to exist. ARTICLE 30 1. Any Party may propose an amendment to this Convention. The text of any such amendment and the reasons therefor shall be communicated to the Secretary-General, who shall communicate them to the Parties and to the Council. The Council may decide either: |