Nations Should Reject UN Drug Policy

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<h2 id="k36762" class="contentStyle4">10th March 2009

Nations Should Reject UN Drug Policy</h2>

 

New 10-Year Plan Omits Critical Protections on HIV and Human Rights

 

The new UN Political Declaration on Drugs, designed to guide drug policy for the next 10 years, lacks critically important measures for treating and stemming the spread of HIV, Human Rights Watch, the International AIDS Society, and the International Harm Reduction Association said today.

 

The groups said that respect for human rights and HIV prevention should be at the heart of the policy, but that critical elements had been stripped from the final declaration. They called on member governments to refuse to support the declaration, which is being considered at the high-level segment of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) this week in Vienna.

 

“Government delegations could have used this process to take stock of what has failed in the last decade in drug-control efforts, and to craft a new international drug policy that reflects current realities and challenges,” said Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of the International Harm Reduction Association. “Instead, they produced a declaration that is not only weak – it actually undermines fundamental health and human rights obligations”.

 

What is at issue is a series of measures known collectively as ‘harm reduction services’, which have been endorsed by UN health and drug control agencies, including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization. These measures include needle and syringe exchange and medication-assisted therapy (for example, with methadone), both inside and outside prisons, as essential to address HIV among people who use drugs. The groups noted that a wealth of evidence proves harm reduction is essential to HIV prevention for people who use drugs. The action was taken against the direct advice of UNAIDS, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the UN special rapporteurs on health and on torture.

 

Up to 30 percent of all HIV infections outside of sub-Saharan Africa occur via unsafe injecting drug use. The groups said there is clear evidence that harm reduction interventions can halt or even reverse HIV epidemics among people who inject drugs.

 

“This political declaration fails public health,” said Craig McClure, Executive Director of the International AIDS Society. “Coming less than 12 months after UN member states convened a high level meeting in New York to restate the international commitment to fight HIV, the denial of any reference in the declaration to life saving harm reduction programmes is unacceptable and unconscionable”.

 

The political declaration also fails human rights. In country after country around the world, abusive law enforcement practices conducted under the banner of the ‘war on drugs’ result in extensive, and often horrific, human rights violations. In addition, overly restrictive interpretations of the international drug-control treaties at national level result in the denial of access to essential pain medications to tens of millions of people worldwide.

 

Both of these issues were raised by the UN special rapporteur on health and the UN special rapporteur on torture, who wrote to the CND to urge explicit support for human rights within the political declaration. All member states of the UN have ratified at least one of the core UN human rights treaties, and the UN General Assembly has consistently stated that drug enforcement must be carried out in a manner consistent with respect for human rights.

 

“Given the widespread human rights abuses around the world directly resulting from drug enforcement, human rights must be placed at the heart of UN drug policy,” said Joseph Amon, Director of Human Rights Watch’s health and human rights division. “But the political declaration makes scant reference to the legal obligations of member states under international human rights treaties, nor does it insist on respect for human rights in drug policy”.

 

The international community should recognise that the current approach to international drug policy has failed, the organisations said. Concrete steps should be taken to set forth a drug policy framework incorporating evidence-based measures to address drug-related harm and the human rights obligations of states, and of the UN as an international organisation, at its heart. This means supporting harm reduction measures. It means acknowledging that punitive drug policies don’t work, and have taken a serious toll on the lives and health of millions of people. It also means acknowledging that we need a new way forward.

 

The groups called on member states not to lend their names to a political declaration that does not sufficiently prioritise the centrality of harm reduction and human rights within the global response to drugs, and join the call from other civil society organisations for further efforts across the UN system to find a more effective, coherent, and relevant response to drugs.

 

For more information, please contact Professor Gerry Stimson (IHRA) in London: +44 78-7260-0908; Karen Bennett (International AIDS Society) in Geneva: +41 22-7100-832; Joe Amon (Human Rights Watch) in Vienna: +1 917-519-8930; or Rebecca Schleifer (Human Rights Watch) in Vienna: +1 646-331-0324.

 

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26th June 2008

United Nations Secretary-General Calls for Greater Focus on the Rights of Prisoners and Drug Users

 

 

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has used the UN’s 'International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking' (June 26th) to remind UN Member States of their human rights obligations while countering the world drug problem.

 

While calling for continued international co-operation, Ban Ki-Moon highlighted the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, taking place throughout the United Nations this year. “I remind all Member States of their responsibility to fully respect the rights of prisoners who are drug dependent or are in custody for drug-related crimes”, he said, "especially their rights to life and a fair trial." Recognising the discrimination faced by people who use drugs in accessing services, HIV prevention and other medical assistance programmes the Secretary-General called on Member States “to ensure that people who are struggling with drug addiction be given equal access to health and social services”.

 

“No-one should be stigmatised or discriminated against because of their dependence on drugs”, he continued.

 

At the launch of the independent Commission on AIDS in Asia report earlier this year, Ban Ki-Moon made similar comments in the context of HIV prevention, stating that there “will be no equitable progress so long as some parts of the population are marginalized and denied basic health and human rights”, including “injecting drug users”.

 

Today, the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) and Transform Drug Policy Foundation have welcomed the Secretary-General’s statements. “The Universal Declaration is the bedrock of human rights protection in the United Nations system and must underpin drug law and policy” said IHRA Executive Director, Professor Gerry Stimson, “we are extremely pleased that the Secretary General has focused on the rights of people in prison and people who use drugs, so often overlooked in the global war on drugs. Drug policy must focus as a matter of priority on the right to health of people who use drugs, including HIV and hepatitis C prevention and treatment”.

 

Danny Kushlick, Director of Transform, said: “We are hopeful that there is a sea change taking place at the international level. This statement follows on from a number of significant statements and developments at the United Nations, which suggest that a greater focus on public health and human rights may be on the cards for international drug policy. There is an increasing recognition at the UN that a punitive enforcement-led approach to drugs is undermining efforts to improve public health, and creating a criminal black market worth £160 billion a year. The Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UNODC are to be applauded for being so outspoken in this regard."

 

In March, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs passed its first ever human rights resolution in its 60-year history. The International Narcotics Control Board, which has in the past said that it ‘will not discuss human rights’, this year said that a lack of respect for human rights can undermine drug control efforts. And the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, has acknowledged that a lack of focus on health and human rights has been an ‘unintended consequence’ of the current approach to drug control. Coinciding with the Secretary-General’s remarks, UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa will launch the UN’s ‘World Drug Report’ in New York later today.

 

In July, hundreds of civil society representatives will meet at the UN in Vienna as part of the ‘Beyond 2008’ process to discuss the next ten year strategy for international drug policy. Danny Kushlick concluded: “The last UN ten-year strategy included the slogan ‘A drug free world, we can do it!’ It is clear that the next strategy will be based on goals far less fanciful and far more life enhancing”.

 

“We hope that the next ten years will see a significant shift in focus at the international level”, said Professor Stimson, “one that prioritises the health and welfare of those affected by drug related harm over stigmatisation and punishment.”

 

For further information, please contact Danny Kushlick (Director of Transform; +44 (0) 7970 174 747), Damon Barrett (Human Rights Analyst at IHRA; +44 (0) 7933 730 640), or Steve Rolles (Information Officer at Transform; +44 (0) 7980 213 943).

 

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