On 20 December 1988, at the United Nations Office at Vienna, the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was opened for signature. The Conference of Plenipotentiaries at the Neue Hofburg (25 November to 20 December) had adopted it the previous day. One original, equally authentic Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts. Depositary: the Secretary-General. It remained open for signature at Vienna until 28 February 1989 and thereafter at New York until 20 December 1989, by all States, Namibia represented by the United Nations Council for Namibia, and competent regional economic integration organizations (Article 26). Registration: UNTS 27627, volume 1582.

Article 2: the purpose is co-operation so that Parties may address more effectively the international dimension of illicit traffic, consistently with sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-intervention. Article 3 requires each Party to establish as criminal offences under its domestic law, when committed intentionally, production, manufacture, extraction, offering, distribution, sale, delivery, transport, importation or exportation contrary to the 1961 and 1971 Conventions; the organization, management or financing of those offences; and the conversion or transfer of property knowing it is proceeds. Subject to constitutional principles, also possession, purchase or cultivation for personal consumption if contrary to those Conventions. This is not a handbook of production or trafficking.

Article 5: confiscation of proceeds of the offences in Article 3(1); bank secrecy may not be invoked to refuse to make records available. Article 6: a legal basis for extradition among Parties. Article 7: mutual legal assistance upon request. Article 12: two annexed tables of substances, which the Commission on Narcotic Drugs may amend, taking into account the scientific assessment of the International Narcotics Control Board; the lists are not reproduced here.

Article 17: co-operation against illicit traffic by sea, without describing interception procedures. Article 25: it shall not derogate from the 1961 Convention (as amended in 1972) and the 1971 Convention. Article 29(1): it enters into force on the ninetieth day after deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession by States or by Namibia. Entry into force: 11 November 1990. Article 30: denunciation takes effect one year after notification. Article 32: disputes to negotiation, then arbitration or the ICJ, with a permitted reservation.

The Convention supplements, and does not replace, the 1961 and 1971 treaties. The list of Parties and the tables of substances are not set out here.

The Neue Hofburg, Vienna, the place of the Conference, not the signing room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The text: United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.