To: Ms Ghada Waly, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Subject: Open letter on UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day

On 10 December 2020, we urge you to mark International Human Rights Day by calling on Member States to change drug policies and practices that violate human rights, and entrench exclusion and discrimination.

We are writing to you concerning the forthcoming International Human Rights Day, which will take place on 10 December 2020 amidst the devastating global COVID-19 pandemic that has compounded the exclusion and discrimination faced by people and communities affected by drug policies worldwide. As your first International Human Rights Day as Executive Director of UNODC, this occasion is an important opportunity to issue a strong statement that underlines UNODC’s commitment to rights-based drug policies, and calls for change in the laws and practices that threaten health and human rights.

For decades, punitive drug policies have driven widespread human rights violations, as has been amply documented by the UN.1 These include: the death penalty for drug offences; extrajudicial killings; arbitrary detention, often masquerading as ‘rehabilitation’; the denial of access to life-saving harm reduction services; widespread barriers to accessing controlled medicines for pain relief; the criminalisation of people who use drugs, subsistence farmers and others groups in situations of vulnerability; corporal punishment; and mass incarceration. Furthermore, draconian drug policies have disproportionately affected people who live in situations of exclusion on the basis gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, amongst others.

In the past years, an increasing number of UN bodies have called on Member States to align their drug policies with human rights standards. The 2018 Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drug-related matters makes clear that ‘National drug control programmes (…) should be designed and implemented by States in accordance with their human rights obligations’, and commits all UN agencies, including UNODC, to support drug policies ‘that put people, health, and human rights at the centre’.2 In 2019, a number of UN agencies, including UNDP, OHCHR and WHO, published the ‘International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy’,3 which provide the first comprehensive international human rights standards on drug-related matters. IDPC called on UNODC to follow this trend in our Advocacy Note ‘Recommendations for the new UNODC Executive Director’,4 which is attached to IDPC’s correspondence to you dated 24 February 2020.

The 2020 International Human Rights Day, which will be held under the title ‘Recover better: Stand Up for Human Rights’, includes a thematic focus on the need ‘to apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination’. As such, it presents a key opportunity for UNODC to highlight its commitment to the promotion of drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in line with the UN System Common Position.

In that regard, we urge you to issue a strong statement on International Human Rights Day, calling on states to change the drug laws, policies and practices that violate health and human rights. To be credible, such a statement should explicitly name the major human rights violations committed in the name of drug control, and urge member states to:

1. Abolish the death penalty in all circumstances. Imposing capital punishment for drug offences has been found to be contrary to international human rights law by the Human Rights Committee6, and the Human Rights Council.

2. Put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings committed in the name of drug control, as has been repeatedly called for by the Human Rights Council8 and UN human rights experts.

3. Permanently close compulsory drug detention centres, including those that masquerade as ‘rehabilitation’, and implement voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services, as recently called for by sixteen UN agencies, including UNODC.

4. Stress the urgent need to provide accessible, affordable, and adequately funded harm reduction services in community and closed settings, to fulfil the right to health and the right to life of people who use drugs, as demanded by several UN human rights bodies and experts. This is also central to UNODC’s core, funded role as lead UNAIDS co-sponsor regarding prisons and HIV amongst people who use drugs.

5. Take immediate measures to address prison overcrowding, as already recommended by UNODC and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting alternatives to incarceration, and ensuring proportionate sentencing for all drug offences, including by taking into account mitigating factors – in line with the basic principle that prisons should only be used as a last resort in all circumstances.

6. Ensure that people who use drugs are not subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment – whether in state custody or public or private drug services. While under detention, people with a drug dependence or other problems associated with their drug use must be offered evidence-based treatment, harm reduction and other drug services on a strictly voluntary basis.

7. Promote the end of all punishment for drug use, and drug possession and cultivation for personal use, as permitted within the three drug control conventions. Such policy shifts will help to end the stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion faced by people who use drugs, and to facilitate access to health and social services, as called for by the UN System Common Position, UNAIDS, and UN human rights bodies.

8. Make sure that drug policies incorporate a gender-sensitive perspective. This should be done by tailoring drug services to the specific needs of women, and by ensuring that criminal laws take into account the circumstances of women involved in drug offences, as most of them come from backgrounds of poverty, marginalisation, and oppression.

9. Clearly outline the ways in which UNODC will work to achieve these changes, and the measures being taken to ensure that human rights are effectively embedded as a core strand for all of the Office’s work.

As the lead UN agency in drug-related matters, UNODC has the responsibility to promote drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in a way that is consistent with the standards developed by the UN system, and in line with the commitments set in the UN System Common Position. A strong statement for your first International Human Rights Day as Executive Director would be an important and welcome step that signals UNODC’s unequivocal commitment to human rights.

We look forward to discussing these concerns and recommendations with you.

+100 NGOs sign open letter to Ms. Ghada Waly calling for strong UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says he will ask the federal government to approve a plan to decriminalize simple possession of illicit drugs in the city.

The move comes as the overdose crisis shows no sign of slowing, with 2020 tracking to be the worst year on record with 328 overdose deaths in the city so far.

"Personal possession and use of drugs is not a criminal justice issue; it is a health issue," said Stewart. "It is time to end the stigma around substance use, help connect more of our neighbours to health care, and save lives."

If successful, Vancouver will become the first jurisdiction in Canada to decriminalize simple possession.

More than 1,500 lives have been lost to the overdose crisis in Vancouver since British Columbia declared it a provincial public health emergency in April 2016.

Vancouver to seek federal approval to decriminalize simple possession of illicit drugs

By Winnie Byanyima & Matthew Kavanagh / The Guardian

In a pandemic, when policy falls short, people die. Amid the growing Covid-19 pandemic and the continuing HIV pandemic, this is clearer today than ever before. From rules on access to testing to the distribution of new medical technologies or the use of criminal law in public health, policymaking is fraught. This World Aids Day, the global Aids response stands on a precipice.

Actions in the next few years will either tip us towards halting HIV, making deaths and new infections rare, or towards a resurgent virus thriving on social faultlines.

However, science means little when laws and policies drive inequality and stop the benefits being reaped.

A new report from the HIV Policy Lab shows the disconnect between what we know and how that is translated into policy. The 2020 Global HIV Policy Report shows that only a handful of countries have aligned even 80% of policies with international standards. Only a third make HIV prevention medicines available to everyone who is at substantial risk. Without that, they cannot put the new evidence on long-acting drugs to work.

This World Aids Day the global response to HIV stands on a precipice

By Andrew Little, New Zealand Minister of Health

The Government will pass time limited legislation to give legal certainty to drug checking services, so they can carry out their work to keep New Zealanders safer this summer at festivals without fear of prosecution, Health Minister Andrew Little says.

Next year the Government will develop and consult on regulations to provide a long-term solution.

Until today, drug checking services such as Know Your Stuff, who test festival goers’ drugs for high risk substances and dangerous impurities and offer safety advice, have effectively been operating illegally.

Govt moves on drug checking to keep young New Zealanders safer this summer

By Alexei Koseff / San Francisco Chronicle

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, plans to introduce a decriminalization bill in the Legislature next year. He was working on it with Assembly members Evan Low, D-Campbell, and Sydney Kamlager, D-Los Angeles.

“Any substance can be harmful, so I’m not suggesting that anything is like nirvana,” Wiener — who said he doesn’t personally take psychedelics — told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But we know that psychedelics can be used safely. We know they appear to have significant medicinal uses.”

Magic mushrooms, touted as a consciousness-expanding drug in the 1960s, have been used in religious or spiritual practices in some cultures for centuries and possibly thousands of years. The mushrooms contain psilocybin, which is responsible for their psychedelic effect. Some researchers believe psilocybin and other drugs show promise in treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“The war on drugs has been a disaster, in terms of bloating law enforcement, tearing apart communities, criminalizing addiction and spending enormous amounts of money on prisons,” Wiener said. “We need to end the war on drugs. Possession of drugs should just not be a crime.”

California would decriminalize psychedelic drugs under Scott Wiener bill 

The film ‘Targets’ is a story about the women in Ukraine who are branded as “drug addicts” and who are being destroyed by the state today. These women are targets, and a real war is being waged against them. The film is an attempt to understand why this is happening and what needs to be done to stop these deaths.

On the one hand, the state finances a program of substitution maintenance therapy (SMT), which is a method of treating drug addiction with proven effectiveness. Many women in Ukraine receive this therapy. This gives them the opportunity to restore health and social ties, find work, devote time to family and children, etc.

However, on the other hand, as soon as a woman begins to receive this treatment, she is immediately diagnosed with drug addiction. At this moment, as a result of being given this status, she loses all her rights. In practice, this is very often used by social services, which can take children from such women and deprive them of parental rights.

 ‘Targets’ - A film on the impact of prohibition of women who use drugs in Ukraine

Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual day to mourn and honour transgender people who’s lives have been lost the hands of anti-trans violence. Transmisogyny is very much alive as a mainstream idea, transmysoginistic views are often casually expressed by public figures, politicians, and “good-faith” actors describing themselves as being “gender critical” and painting a picture that they are simply asking honest questions.

However, these views do represent and contribute more sinister and violent forms of transmisogyny. It seems every passing year goes on record as being the most violent year for transgender people, in particular in the United States, where many organizations including Human Rights Campaign collect data. In Germany, where I live, while data on transgender people specifically is difficult to find, reported attacks on LGBTQ+ people have been following a similar upward trend. Per Transgender Europe (TGEU), between October 2019 and September 2020 there have been 350 murders of transgender and gender-diverse people worldwide – a figure which does not account for a massive amount of unreported murders and a figure which is rising year-on-year.

This threat of violence and passive discrimination experienced push transgender people to unsuitable living situations and prevent their access to significant sections of society, all of which could be described as forms of institutional violence leading to harms and to deaths not accounted for in these violent murder statistics.

Youth RISE's statement on Transgender Day of Remembrance

Argentina on Thursday authorized people to grow marijuana at home for medicinal use, delighting supporters of cannabis who have fought for years to make it widely available to patients suffering from a broad range of ailments.

A decree issued by President Alberto Fernández also allows pharmacies to sell cannabis-derived oils, creams and other products, and it orders public and private insurance systems to cover these medications for patients who obtain a prescription.

The president’s move significantly expanded the reach of a 2017 law that legalized medical marijuana. Supporters of medicinal cannabis say Mr. Fernández’s predecessor, Mauricio Macri, established restrictions so strict that it effectively made the drug inaccessible to patients.

The measure is the latest step softening drug laws in Latin America. In 2017, Uruguay legalized recreational marijuana, which is sold in pharmacies, and Colombia established a licensing system to grow cannabis for medicinal use. Home growers in Argentina will need a license based on medical needs.

Argentina to allow medicinal marijuana to be grown at home

By Wilbert L. Cooper and Christie Thompson of the Marshall Project, The Guardian

From the Pacific Northwest to the deep south, drug legalization won big nationwide on election day in the United States.

Under the first state law of its kind, people in Oregon soon won’t be arrested for possessing small amounts of drugs including heroin, meth and cocaine. In New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana, voters joined 11 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing recreational marijuana. Washington DC passed an initiative to make mushrooms and other natural psychedelics the lowest possible enforcement priority. Even Mississippi legalized medical marijuana.

After months of global protests over racism in policing, advocates behind many of these campaigns focused their messaging on racial disparities in drug-law enforcement. In New Jersey, a social media ad explaining how a marijuana arrest could ruin someone’s life centered images of young Black men and women. Activists in Oregon pointed to a statewide study that found drug convictions for Black and Native people would drop by nearly 95% under the state’s decriminalization law.

Yet despite these electoral successes, it remains unclear what effect the new measures will have for communities of color, who have long been disproportionately targeted in the war on drugs. Even as many states move toward legalization, drug-related violations remain the most frequent cause for arrest in the US. Nearly 40% of those arrests are for marijuana possession alone, according to federal data from 2018. Black people make up 27% of drug arrests, but only 13% of the country.

How will drug legalization affect America's communities of color?

While the results of the 2020 US election may have been hotly disputed, one outcome that was crystal clear was the win for progressive drug policy. From New Jersey to Arizona, voters in their millions chose to decriminalise the use of drugs at an unprecedented scale with Oregon even introducing a historic first by legalising magic mushrooms for therapeutic use.

That’s all well and good for the US but, you may be wondering, what does that have to do with our lived reality on Britain’s shores?

Earlier this month, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the world’s leading non-profit psychedelic research organisation, began fundraising in the UK to support clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among wounded army veterans.

In fact, the PTSD study is just one of dozens currently taking place in the UK that seek to explore the impact that psychedelic substances can have on mental health.

From MDMA, to psilocybin (magic mushrooms), Ayahuasca and beyond, a whole host of mind-altering substances which were traditionally used in recreational settings are being explored for their therapeutic benefits. So, given the historic racial disparities in mental health outcomes and the known lack of culturally competent mental health provision for our communities, just who is advocating for Black people’s needs within this newly emerging field?

Here’s why Black people in the UK are turning to psychedelics

An investigation by El Espectador revealed the existence of a corruption network within the asset forfeiture unit of the Attorney General’s Office involving high-ranking judicial officials, as well as lawyers of well-known drug traffickers and US federal agents.

According to inspections conducted by the Attorney General’s Office, lawyer Luis Valero, along with prosecutor Mónica Valencia and agents from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), offered a number of benefits to Colombian drug trafficker Javier García Rojas, alias “Maracuyá,” in exchange for 10 percent of his seized assets. These included a get-out-of-jail-free card from the Clinton List, which bars any US individuals or entities from doing business with him.

One of the assets taken from García Rojas was a large piece of land inside the Marmonal industrial zone in Cartagena reportedly valued at 419 billion Colombian pesos ($108 million) and that had pre-existing approval for a port to be built there.

Maracuyá’s main business partner, José Bayron Piedrahíta Ceballos, a drug trafficker who was arrested in Argentina in 2017, also confirmed the existence of benefit packages that several US officials and agents offered to suspects.

Maracuyá’s case was just one of several corruption cases within the asset forfeiture unit of the Attorney General’s Office. The El Espectador investigation also revealed that the former director of the unit, Andrea Malagón, was linked to corruption within the Meritage real estate project in the city of Medellín.

Colombia continues to bungle assets seized from drug traffickers

The newly sworn-in president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, will face a number of pressing security challenges as he works to bring stability back to the country — but none is as important as setting a clear drug policy. Arce’s landslide election win at the end of October marked a return to power for the Movement to Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo — MAS) party, which was led by former President Evo Morales before he was ousted and forced into exile after a contentious 2019 election.

A state-sanctioned crackdown on the opposition and widespread human rights abuses — including the killing of 10 coca farmers when troops opened fire on protesters decrying Morales’ departure — in large part defined the 12-month tenure of the interim government of Jeanine Áñez.

Now, Arce is tasked with not only restoring calm to the Andean nation, but also grappling with rising drug flights leaving the northern department of Beni and allegations that Brazil’s First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital — PCC) may now be sourcing most of its cocaine supply from Bolivia, among other things.

Bolivia has been known for thinking progressively in terms of drug policy, including creating a legal, domestic coca market. But Áñez’s interim government quickly swung Bolivia’s anti-drug approach back to hard-line measures focused on the lofty goal of creating a country “free of drugs.”

Under Morales, the government took a different approach to drug policy and invested in a “community coca control” program. This focused on working with coca growers directly to maintain the quota on legal production — which stands at 22,000 hectares — “rather than to recklessly eradicate the plant,” according to an Open Society Foundations report.

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