These abuses are widespread and systematic. They are cause for considerable concern in themselves, but they are also impeding an effective response to the AIDS epidemic by denying people who use drugs access to proven, effective HIV prevention, care, and treatment services and by contributing to at least one million people living with HIV/AIDS going without adequate treatment to address moderate to severe pain.
It is not enough to apply the drug conventions in a vacuum. Every UN Member state has ratified at least one of the core human rights treaties. Most have ratified many more. Every state is bound by UN Charter obligations in relation to human rights, and every state is bound by customary international law. As such, these issues raise considerable legal and strategic questions for states seeking to live up to their international human rights and drug control obligations.
Increasingly, human rights monitors, mechanisms and NGOs have begun to focus on drug policies and their impact on human rights protections, but this rarely happens in a connected or thematic way. These briefing papers are intended to provide a basic overview of some of the core human rights issues related to drug control efforts and to show how they interconnect, and to spark a discussion of how international human rights law can be engaged to address a range of human rights concerns raised by drug enforcement laws, policies, and practices.
The briefings, from IHRA, OSI, Human Rights Watch and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, are available below in English and Russian. Spanish and Chinese versions are forthcoming.
Human Rights and Drug Policy Briefings Overview (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 110 KB) (PDF, 365 KB)
Briefing 1 - Harm Reduction (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 179 KB) (PDF, 459 KB)
Briefing 2 - Criminal laws and Policing (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 180 KB) (PDF, 488 KB)
Briefing 3 - Harm Reduction and Detention (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 138 KB) (PDF, 453 KB)
Briefing 4 - Compulsory Drug Treatment (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 146 KB) (PDF, 454 KB)
Briefing 5 - Access to Controlled Essential Medicines (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 159 KB) (PDF, 465 KB)
Briefing 6 - Crop Eradication (E, R, S, C) (PDF, 144 KB) (PDF, 440 KB)
International Harm Reduction Association
October 2010