For more information, contact Eric Oliver at (202) 797-2171 or eoliver@wola.org

Globally, there are an estimated 625,000 women and girls deprived of liberty, either awaiting or serving a sentence. In the past few years, the population of women prisoners has increased at a faster rate than that of their male counterparts. In Latin America, the incarceration rate for women has almost doubled from 40,000 in 2006 to 74,000 in 2010.

In a report on the current status of women and their participation in the illicit drugs trade, the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) shows that the majority of women imprisoned in the Americas are deprived of their liberty for drug-related crimes. Most of these women are awaiting a trial, and despite being presumed innocent, are held in “pre-trial detention.” Among other issues, the research paper discusses how the women who participate in the drug trade tend to do so at the lowest levels of the commercialization chain, many as a result of poverty and/or coercion. Long term imprisonment of women who are also mothers creates a separation which can be damaging to their dependent children and can lead to the breakdown of families.

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) has published a paper on women, drug-related crime, and prisons in Latin America that discusses how women’s participation in the commercialization chain of the illegal drug market is different than that of men, as are their experiences of penitentiary systems. The report explains the factors that contribute to the role of women as easily replaceable, lower-level actors within transnational criminal networks for drug trafficking and describes the particular challenges, violence, and abuse that they face when incarcerated. IDPC proposes a series of policy responses, including sentencing reform and alternatives to incarceration for women convicted of low-level, non-violent drug offenses.

The two studies highlight that the issue of women and drugs in the Americas needs to be approached from a perspective that is sensitive to gender differences, especially when designing and implementing drug laws and policies.

This roundtable, organized by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the OAS, The OAS's Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM/OAS), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), will explore the increased participation of women in all spheres of the illicit drugs market, as well as the gender dynamics of their involvement, and the need to rethink the hemispheric approach to the issue from a human rights and gender perspective. It will bring together experts in drug policy from government, civil society, academia, and the international community.

17th and Constitution N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006

José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS

2:40 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Welcome and Panel Introduction


Ambassador Milton Romani Gerner, Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the OAS

Gabriela Olivera, National Drugs Secretariat, Uruguay 

3:10 p.m. - 4:10 p.m.
Roundtable: “Women, Drugs, Prisons, and Human Rights”


Corina Giacomello, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

Nischa Pieris, Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM/OAS)

Rosa Julia Leyva, National Security Commission, Ministry of the Interior, Mexico

Gabriela Olivera, National Drugs Secretariat, Uruguay

Moderator: Coletta Youngers, IDPC and WOLA

Adam Blackwell, Secretary, Secretariat for Multidimensional Security/OAS

Reception to follow in the Galería de los Heroes, hosted by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the OAS

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Women, drug policy and incarceration in the Americas 

3.45pm Wed 26th March | Outside Newcombe House, Notting Hill Gate

Russian 'drug war' Mr. Ivanov has announced that he will, as a matter of "first priority", order the 

immediate closure of all opiate substitution therapy (OST) centres

 currently operating in the Crimea. This represents a massive human rights violation and public health crisis for the more than 800 current clients of the programmes.

We are going to demonstrate outside the Russian Embassy to send a message to President Putin that the health and rights of all people in Crimea and Russia must be protected.

Please join the Student Stop AIDS Day of Action and show solidarity with activists, people who use drugs and people living with HIV from Crimea and Eastern Europe.

Demand that Russia continues harm reduction programming in Crimea!

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Pathway to reform

Our stories: Women and harm reduction

The conference addresses the issue of improving fairness and equity in health in Europe, improving access to health and combatting discrimination in health.

To highlight current issues on fairness in health, access to health and discrimination in health in Europe

To exchange information on policies and good practice in improving fairness and equity in health and combatting discrimination

To propose conference conclusions on common basic principles and values on improving equity and combatting discrimination in health

The expected number of participants is 400. The conference will bring together representatives of Member States, non-governmental organisations and other relevant stakeholders, professional groups, academics, and EU institutions.

for more details on the conference and the venue.

Health in Europe, making it fairer

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs will take place from Monday 17 to Friday 21 March 2014. This year, it will be preceded by a High Level Segment, from 13 to 14 March 2014. The purpose of this meeting is to review the progress made, and the challenges encountered, since the 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action on the World Drug Problem. The main focus of the High Level Segment will be the negotiation of a ‘Joint Ministerial Statement’, which will set the scene for the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), as well as recording member states’ views of progress. 

Side events organised/co-organised by IDPC

9:00 - 9:50 - Sentencing policies for drug offences: Best practices in the UK, organised by the Academic Council on the UN System, the Vienna Liaison Office and IDPC - Conference Room M2

13:10 - 14:00 - A tool for debate: The OAS report on drug policy, organised by Guatemala, Colombia, Mexico, IDPC - Conference Room M2

13:10 - 14:00 - Monitoring and evaluation of the Uruguayan cannabis legislative and regulation process, organised by Uruguay, TNI, IDPC, WOLA - Conference Room M2 (Flyer available in English and Spanish)

9:00 - 9:50 - Health: the cornerstone of future drug policy (with a focus on access to essential medicines), organised by Lithuania, IDHDP, IAHPC and IDPC - Conference Room M3

9:00 - 9:50 - Current drug policies: Evaluating indicators, examining future options, organised by Finland, IDPC, the Global Drug Policy Observatory, LSE Ideas, ICSDP - Conference Room M6

13:10 - 14:00 - Modernising drug law enforcement, organised by Switzerland, IDPC, IISS and Chatham House - Conference Room M3

14:20 - 15:10 - Drug trafficking and consumption in West Africa, organised by Cape Verde and co-sponsored by the African Union, the West Africa Commission on Drugs, Benin and IDPC - Conference Room M3

 is available here. IDPC has produced a flyer of side events of interest available below.

On Sunday 16th March (9:45 to 12:30), Transform will also organise a 

workshop on how to constructively engage with - and win - the debate on drug regulation

. If you wish to attend, please email steve@tdpf.org.uk.

IDPChas prepared a short FAQ for the media aims to epxlain what the CND and High Level Segment are, and why they are important:

A Press Conference with UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov will take place on Friday 14th March at 17:00 in the MOE Press Room, M-Building, Vienna International Centre.

The Guide is available below in English and Russian. Many thanks to the AIDS Foundation East West for translating the document into Russian.

General logistical and practical information

For more information on the High-Level Segment, please visit the IDPC webpage, and the official UNODC microsite. The event will be streamed live on the UNODC microsite.

The subsequent week will be the normal CND session. As usual, the CND will include a thematic debate at the Plenary, as well as two panel discussions, one of which on the scheduling of substances and the other on preparations for the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs. Member states will also negotiate 12 resolutions in the Committee of the Whole. These resolutions need to be agreed by consensus.

The CND should be streamed via Skype. However, in case the quality of the streaming is not of sufficient quality, please use a standard phone line to dial into the conference listening service. Call 

 and enter the following listening number: 

 are available for download in UN languages on the website of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

 to be discussed at CND is now available here.

57th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs & High-level segment

For registration and security badges please send your full name, date of birth, nationality, address and passport or ID number to myrofora.kostidou@europarl.europa.eu by 

A new approach to European drug policy for the 21st century

ACPO Drugs Committee, Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs

, Road User Licensing, Insurance and Safety, Department for Transport

The Government's drugs strategy aims to reduce demand and restrict supply, but how effective has the strategy been? In the new era of legal-highs, or New Psychoactive Substances, what are the best ways to legislate and control substances on a regional and local level? This policy and practice briefing will look at how organisations can work together to commission services effectively, tackle drug-related harm and lay the foundations for victim recovery.

Restricting supply of unregulated legal highs and New Psychoactive Substances

How will individual drugs regulation affect approaches to policing?

Examination of the Drug Driving consultation.

Commissioning recovery services and Payment by Results.

Using technology to advise communities about drug-related crime.

Public Health England : working locally to reduce crime and improve well being.

Collaboration: potential for a joined-up approach to tackle drug related harm.

Early prevention schemes in schools and through education.

Joint-working between justice, police, health and education organisations to take back to your setting.

will comprise of an expert-led discussion on the detail of the Government's strategy and effective work in this area so far. Delegates will learn about issues surrounding legal-highs, effective commissioning, drug driving and more.

will focus on how best to collaborate with other services and explore case studies of locally-led approaches to tackling drug-related harm in order for delegates to take back tried and tested strategies to their settings.

Delegates will be drawn from Police forces, Drugs and Alcohol Teams, Public Health England, Community Safety Partnerships, Health and Wellbeing Boards, CPS, ASB teams, Crime Prevention Design Advisors, Transport for London, The British Transport Police, Association of Convienience Stores, Local Councils, LGAs, Hate Crime Teams, private sector stakeholders.

This Westminster Briefing offers your organisation a platform to profile its services to your target audience and key decision makers. There are a number of packages available, from aligning your organisation alongside the conference as a sponsor to exhibiting at the event. Please contact adam.alcock@westminster-briefing.comfor details or download a booking form.

The future of the UK drugs strategy

is a wide-ranging feature documentary about a commodity that has tremendous power – both to ease pain and to destroy lives. Building upon many of the issues raised within it, the accompanying panel discussion aims to explore the complexities of the illicit market in heroin and other controlled drugs as an area of public policy concern.

Reflecting the truly inter-disciplinary nature and expansive transnational scope of this topic, discussion will give attention to the challenges to policies and programmes within production, transit and consumer markets, including those in places as distant as Afghanistan and those closer to home.

Underpinned by the GDPO’s belief in the need for an evidence and rights based approach to policy formulation, the panel will question law enforcement dominated strategies and engage with debates about health-oriented approaches and shifts away from the so-called ‘war on drugs’.

6:30pm: Panel Discussion and audience Q+A – ‘The Dilemmas of Drug Policy: Global to Local’

GDPO Senior Research Officer and Professor of Comparative Politics, School of Public Policy at the Central European University, Budapest

Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Drug Policy Reform

Chief Executive, The Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPt), Chair, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) steering group, former Deputy UK Anti-Drug Coordinator

 – GDPO Director and Professor of International Relations and Public Policy, Swansea University

**Free admission; all individuals aged 16+ are very welcome to attend.

Venue: Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University.

For further information on the Global Drug Policy Observatory click here.

The dilemmas of drug policy: Global to local

The rise in methamphetamine use has provoked a barrage of misinformation and reckless policies, such as mandatory minimum sentences, increased penalties for minor offenders, and major restrictions against certain medicines.

The Open Society Foundations host an expert panel to explore illicit methamphetamine use and its consequences, including alarmist propaganda and the flawed policies that have followed. The event will also look at humane approaches to methamphetamine users and smarter drug policies.

This event will celebrate the release of the latest report by Columbia University psychology professor Carl Hart, titled 

Bill Piper, Drug Policy Alliance, Director of National Affairs

Holly Catania, Drug Policy, Law and Health Consultant

Howard Josepher, President and CEO, Exponents

Marykate O’Neil, Columbia University (Moderator)

Methamphetamine: Fact vs. fiction and lessons from the crack hysteria

The Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) was launched in 2007 as a collaborative initiative by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Harm Reduction International (HRI). MENAHRA is the first network on harm reduction in the MENA, covering 20 countries, from Morocco to Afghanistan.

Mr. Elie Aaraj, Executive Director, MENAHRA, Lebanon: 

The lecture will address important issues related to drug policy, drug use and HIV, by one of the most authoritative voices and well-known activists of drug policy reform in the MENA.

The current Executive Director, Elie Aaraj, has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS and harm reduction since 1987, when he began with an in-home nursing programme during the civil war.

The event will take place School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS), Ground Floor Seminar Room, 11 Bevington Road.

Click here to read more about the seminar.

MES Seminar: Illicit drugs and HIV/AIDS: Harm reduction strategies in the Middle East

Drug control efforts are frequently associated with violations of human rights and individual liberties. But national and international drug policy discussions have often dismissed human rights concerns as irrelevant or secondary to achieving what are regarded as overriding drug control imperatives.

As the drug policy debate becomes more open and vigorous, especially in Latin America, there have been increasing calls to make respect for human rights the central concern in designing and implementing drug policies.

Executive Director, Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia)

Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch

To RSVP, please click here. For more information, contact Adam Schaffer at aschaffer@wola.org. The event will be held in English.

 is a founder and the director of the Colombian think tank Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (

Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad

, Dejusticia) and Professor of Constitutional Law, Human Rights, and Theory of the State at the 

 in Bogota. He also currently serves on Colombia’s Drug Policy Advisory Commission (

Comisión Asesora para la Política de Drogas

). From 1994-2004, Uprimny served as Deputy Judge of Colombia’s Constitutional Court. His research and analysis focuses on the intersection between drug policy and human rights, constitutional law, and the tension between law and economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Amiens Picardie and a J.D. from the 

, director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, is a general expert on Latin America. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Vivanco worked as an attorney for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States (OAS). In 1990, he founded the Center for Justice and International Law, an NGO that files complaints before international human rights bodies. Vivanco has also been an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University. He has published articles in leading American and Latin American newspapers and is interviewed regularly for television news. A Chilean, Vivanco studied law at the University of Chile and Salamanca Law School in Spain and holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

The event will be available via livestream at 

The event will take place on Friday, January 24, 2014 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m

Washington Office on Latin America,1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400,Washington, D.C. 20009

Past Events