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whether South Africa should be invited to these Conferences was whether South Africa plays an active part within the organising agency in discussions on the issues being considered and whether it is normal practice for the organising agency to invite South Africa to its international meetings. Ministers agreed that South Africa should not be invited to the AIDS Conference (organised by HMG in association with WHO) on the grounds that it was not WHO practice to invite South Africa to any of its meetings other than the Annual World Health Assembly. In the case of the World Ozone Conference (hosted by HMG in association with UNEP) Ministers agreed not to invite South Africa because, although there was a good case for including them on environmental grounds, South Africa had not been involved in the work of UNEP and there was a risk of a walk-out (or other disruption) by African states which would have jeopardised the success of the conference. In both cases, we subsequently explained our actions to the South African Government and undertook to let them have full sets of Conference documents.
9.
SAFD and NCAD disagree over whether South Africa should be invited to next year's summit. South Africa has attended meetings of the UN drugs agencies. It attended the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at the level of UN Permanent Representative in Vienna although it did not participate in the formal proceedings, nor did it display a national nameplate. It did however, have active exchanges in the margins with its neighbouring states on drugs issues of mutual concern. It was not present at last year's Plenipotentiary Conference for the adoption of the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (although it was invited). Clearly we could not invite the South Africans to attend the Ministerial Summit and then ask them not to speak or display a national nameplate. But SAfD agree that South Africa's attendance on any other basis would carry with it a risk of boycotts and walk-outs which could jeopardise the success of the Conference. NCAD consider that the success of the Conference should be an overriding consideration and, from a drugs point of view, the co-operation of countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, India and the Caribbean governments, which are all significant transit points for drugs coming to the UK, is more important than that of South Africa. However, SAFD consider that the risk of boycotts and walkouts is not, in itself, justification for refusing to invite South Africa and that, by applying our usual criteria, there are no defensible grounds for doing so. South Africa does participate in international meetings and SAFD point out that
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