Human Rights

Human Rights and drug policy

2013-10-12T08:22:49+00:00

The Transnational Institute (TNI) has always believed in the need to find global answers to global problems, been a strong defender of multilateralism and an advocate of a well-functioning United Nat ...

International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy

2010-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Established in 2009, the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related ...

Connecting the dots...

2018-10-26T10:10:01+00:00

How can we resolve the tensions between current drug control policies and states’ human rights obligations? The international human rights framework clearly establishes that, in the event of conflict ...

Drug Control and Human Rights

2017-07-20T14:13:34+00:00

The Health and Human Rights Journal published a special section on Drug Control and Human Rights. This special section examines some of the many ways in which international and domestic drug control ...

The Case for International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Control

2017-03-08T09:06:32+00:00

The international drug control treaties contribute directly to an environment of human rights risk and violations. The drug treaties are what are known within international law as “suppression conven ...

The human rights 'win' at the UNGASS on drugs that no one is talking about, and how we can use it

2016-05-09T08:53:54+00:00

The April 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem offered a unique opportunity to re-examine the approach of punitive suppression that underpins global drug contro ...

Remarks Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

2016-08-11T14:03:02+00:00

"When drugs are decriminalised and health care, including harm reduction, is available, which is the case in a number of Member States, drug dependent persons are less likely to resort to criminal be ...

As UNGASS approaches, yet another devastating UN critique of the drug war is published

2015-12-08T14:20:22+00:00

A significant positive outcome has already emerged from next year’s UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in the form of much more direct engagement in key drug policy issues from a r ...

World drug problem violates human rights in five key areas, says UN official

2015-09-29T13:40:52+00:00

The global drug problem violates human rights in five key areas – the right to health, the rights relating to criminal justice and discrimination, the rights of the child and the rights of indigenous ...

Indonesia's executions: Drugs diplomacy in a diplomatic crisis?

2015-02-27T10:24:40+00:00

All diplomatic efforts earlier this month to save Brazilian and Dutch citizens from execution in Indonesia failed. Both were executed by firing squad. The harrowing final hours of Marco Archer Cardos ...

The 'Fifth Stage' of Drug Control

2015-01-28T09:10:54+00:00

Writing in 1996, Norbert Gilmore noted that ‘little has been written about drug use and human rights. Human rights are rarely mentioned expressly in drug literature and drug use is rarely mentioned i ...

Cross-regional statement on Drugs and Human Rights General Debate

2014-09-25T08:55:15+00:00

This is the first member states' crossregional statement on drugs and human rights in the human rights council. Download the Statement.

Promoting Human Rights - Based Drug Policies in Latin America

2013-12-27T16:23:16+00:00

"Latin American countries can take the lead in ensuring that national, regional, and ultimately international drug control policies are carried out in accordance with respect for the human rights of ...

Human rights and drug control: an irreconcilable contradiction?

2013-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

This week both the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna and the UN General Assembly 3rd Committee in New York discuss new drug control resolutions related to upcoming reviews of global dru ...

Mexico's disappeared

2013-02-21T11:57:45+00:00

This 176-page report documents nearly 250 “disappearances” during the administration of former President Felipe Calderón, from December 2006 to December 2012. In 149 of those cases, Human Rights Watc ...

The Death Penalty for Drug Offences

2012-11-27T17:46:29+00:00

Executions for drug offences have escalated in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia against a trend towards abolition globally, reveals a new Harm Reduction International (HRI) report The Death Pe ...

Partners in Crime

2012-06-22T10:56:15+00:00

Millions of dollars in international aid for drug enforcement is spent in countries with extremely poor human rights records and with little or no accountability for the resulting abuses, according t ...

Commanding general confidence?

2013-10-12T12:52:57+00:00

This note provides an overview of human rights and international law concerns raised by the 2011 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board. These include questionable legal reasoning ...

The Human Rights Costs of the War on Drugs

2012-03-02T11:04:22+00:00

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), together with Transform Drug Policy Foundation, were among the NGOs launching the Count the Costs campaign to urge governments to evaluate the impacts of t ...

Human Rights and Drug Policy

2013-10-12T14:41:48+00:00

In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses: torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, d ...