Ny rapport från International Drug
Policy Consortium
RECALIBRATING THE REGIME
The
Need for a Human Rights-Based Approach to International Drug Policy
"Historically, policies aimed at prohibiting and
punishing the use of certain drugs have driven the international approach to
drug control and dominate the approach of most countries, guided as they are
by the three UN drug control conventions and the dominant policy directions
emanating from the associated international bodies. Such an approach is
usually defended with moralistic portrayals that demonise and dehumanise
people who use drugs as representing a ‘social evil’ menacing the health
and values of the public and state. Portrayed as less than human, people who
use drugs are often excluded from the sphere of human rights concern.
"These policies, and the accompanying enforcement
practices, entrench and exacerbate systemic discrimination against people who
use drugs and result in widespread, varied and serious human rights
violations. As a result, in high-income and low-income countries across all
regions of the world, people who use illegal drugs are often among the most
marginalised and stigmatised sectors of society. They are a group that is
vulnerable to a wide array of human rights violations, including abusive law
enforcement practices, mass incarceration, extrajudicial executions, denial of
health services, and, in some countries, execution under legislation that
fails to meet international human rights standards. Local communities in
drug-producing countries also face violations of their human rights as a
result of campaigns to eradicate illicit crops, including environmental
devastation, attacks on indigenous cultures, and damage to health from
chemical spraying.
"At the level of the United Nations, resolving this
situation through established mechanisms is complicated by the inherent
contradictions faced by the UN on the question of drugs. On the one hand, the
UN is tasked by the international community with promoting and expanding
global human rights protections, a core purpose of the organisation since its
inception. On the other, it is also the body responsible for promoting and
expanding the international drug control regime, the very system that has led
to the denial of human rights to people who use drugs.
"2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the bedrock of international human rights norms.
Despite the actual and potential impact of the international drug conventions
on human rights, the Universal Declaration is conspicuously absent from their
preambles. It is past time for UN, its individual Members, and its organs, as
well as civil society organizations, to ensure that the international drug
control system works to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of people
who use drugs and affected communities..."
