Civil society calls to confront systemic racism in drug control — Dialogue with the EMLER at HRC63

Interactive dialogue with EMLER
63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council

Statement delivered by the International Drug Policy Consortium
29 September 2026

I am making this statement on behalf of IDPC and 3 other organisations.

We welcome EMLER’s new report on systemic racism in drug law enforcement, and the recognition that it is systemic and rooted in the legacies of colonialism, enslavement, racially discriminatory policies and systems, and the globalisation of punitive drug control.

Historically, criminalising substances like opium, cannabis, coca and cocaine has been a tool for social and racial control over certain communities, including Black and brown populations and Indigenous peoples. These racialised and colonial laws were then exported worldwide, producing discriminatory enforcement patterns - from over-policing to mass incarceration and extrajudicial killings - that persist today.

While UN drug control bodies in Vienna have remained silent on this issue, the Human Rights Council, and EMLER, have been instrumental in putting it on the political agenda.

We call on EMLER to:

1st, press Member States to publish drug policy data disaggregated by race and end discriminatory practices in drug law enforcement;

2nd, press the independent panel of experts established to review the UN drug control system to address this critical issue;

And 3rd, we urge both EMLER and the Council to continue to document the racialised impacts of punitive drug control - including via a new Council resolution dedicated to drug policy.

Thank you.