Jonathan Lucas


Jonathan Lucas was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 22 March 2010 as the Secretary of the International Narcotics Control Board and Chief of the International Narcotics Control Board Secretariat. In this position, Dr. Lucas is in charge of the permanent staff in at the United Nations in Vienna working on the international drug control treaties. The Board has had predecessors since the time of under the League of Nations, starting in 1909 in Shanghai with the International Opium Commission, the first international drug control conference. The International Opium Convention of 1925 established the Permanent Central Board. That Board started its work in 1929. After the dissolution of the League, the 1946 Protocol Amending the Agreements, Conventions and Protocols on Narcotic Drugs concluded at The Hague on 23 January 1912, at Geneva on 11 February 1925 and 19 February 1925, and 13 July 1931, at Bangkok on 27 November 1931 and at Geneva on 26 June 1936, created a Supervisory Body to administer the estimate system. The functions of both bodies were merged into the Board by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The composition of the Board under the Single Convention was strongly influenced by the 1946 treaty.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the INCB, Dr. Lucas served as Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Southern Africa, based in Pretoria.
Dr. Lucas started his professional career in 1982 as Consultant with the International Labour Organization in Switzerland and subsequently joined the United Nations in 1984 as Associate Social Affairs Officer. Throughout his career, Dr. Lucas served in various capacities, including as Legal and First Officer for the policy-making organs of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and as Senior Programme Management Officer with the Office of the Executive Director/Director-General of the then United Nations Office on Drug Control and Crime Prevention /United Nations Office at Vienna. From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Lucas served as Secretary of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and Secretary of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.
Dr. Lucas holds a doctoral degree in International Law/Economics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland and a master's degree in Political Science from Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada.