Prof. Sevil Atasoy Re-elected as President of the United Nations INCB!

Prof. Sevil Atasoy, Vice Rector of Üsküdar University, Head of the Department of Forensic Sciences, and Director of the Graduate School of Addiction and Forensic Sciences, was re-elected as President of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) on May 22, 2025. Prof. Sevil Atasoy’s presidency for this term will continue until May 2027.

Prof. Sevil Atasoy, Vice Rector of Üsküdar University, Head of the Department of Forensic Sciences, and Director of the Graduate School of Addiction and Forensic Sciences, was re-elected as President of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) on May 22, 2025. Having also served as President of the Board in 2009, Prof. Sevil Atasoy’s presidency for this term will continue until May 2027.

The first and only representative from Türkiye

Prof. Sevil Atasoy has also served as a member of the INCB, a body that plays a key role in shaping international drug policies, during the 2005–2010 and 2017–2022 terms. Including the current 2022–2027 term, she has now been elected three times by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and has served twice as INCB President, making her the first and only citizen of the Republic of Türkiye to achieve this distinction.

A global role in the fight against drugs

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), established by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, is an independent and quasi-judicial expert body. Its main responsibility is to monitor the implementation of the international drug control treaties of 1961, 1971, and 1988 by member states.

The INCB is also the successor to the Permanent Central Narcotics Board, established by the International Opium Convention of 1925.

The Board consists of 13 members, each elected for a five-year term by the Economic and Social Council. Ten of these members are selected from candidates nominated by governments, while the remaining three are chosen from a list of experts in medicine, pharmacology, or pharmaceutical sciences nominated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Once elected, board members serve in their personal capacity, independently of governments, and are expected to act impartially. They are selected based on their expertise, competence, impartiality, and ability to act without conflicts of interest, thereby ensuring broad trust in the work of the Board.

 

 

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)