Treatment or torture - Applying international human rights standards to drug detention centres

As part of the Open Society Foundations' Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, this report, co-authored by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Harm Reduction International, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Foundations, documents some of the abuses perpetrated in the name of drug rehabilitation.

The report makes the case that abuses in these facilities constitute torture or cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment. The comprehensive analysis relies on frameworks to suggest governments must take action to close these facilities or risk not meeting their international obligations.

This report was released with a companion piece of personal testomonies entitled "Treated with Cruelty: Abuses in the Name of Rehabilitation", which illustrates how human rights are being denied to the individuals who are locked away in compulsory drug treatment centres. Manfred Nowak, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, also adds his voice in an introduction calling for the closure of drug detention facilities.

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