UN report calls for drug policies that protect human rights and reduce harm

On September 20, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council released the UN Human Rights Office’s report on human rights issues that have developed as a result of the war on drugs. This report was prepared on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2023 and presented during the 54th session of the Human Rights Council, taking place from September 11 to October 11, 2023. 13.

“AN urgent report [member] States need to stop relying heavily on punitive measures to address the drug problem and shift to #humanrights and public health-based interventions. “It is important that anti-drug laws, policies and practices do not worsen human suffering,” wrote UN Human Rights on X.

The report suggests that decriminalizing drug possession for personal use should be a priority. “If decriminalization is designed and implemented effectively, it can be an effective tool to ensure that the rights of people who use drugs are protected,” said a United Nations press release.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, global change is urgently needed. “Laws, policies and practices designed to combat drug use must not end up exacerbating human suffering. The drug problem remains very worrying, but treating people who use drugs as criminals is not a solution,” Turk said in a press release. “States should move away from the current prevailing focus on prohibition, repression and punishment and instead adopt laws, policies and practices that are anchored in human rights and aimed at reducing harm.”

Ultimately, the report concludes that “the disproportionate use of criminal sanctions” deters drug users from seeking treatment. Statistics from the 2023 World Drug Report show that 660,000 people die from drug-related causes annually and 10% of new HIV infections in 2021 were due to people who injected drugs.

The report calls the impact of the war on drugs “deep and far-reaching.” “The militarization of law enforcement in the so-called war on drugs contributes to serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings. And the disproportionate use of criminal sanctions contributes significantly to prison overcrowding,” the United Nations press release said.

The UN also stated that the people most affected by current drug policies are black women, women in general, indigenous peoples and young people from poor backgrounds. “Today’s drug policies have the greatest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable,” Turk added.

Due to the increasing number of people receiving the death penalty for drug convictions, many people have suffered as a result of this policy. An estimated 37% of global executions were related to drug convictions, and these offenses doubled in 2022 compared to data provided in 2021.

In Singapore in particular, the death penalty has been imposed on people who traffic in cannabis in recent years. In July 2022, a 49-year-old man was executed in Singapore for cannabis trafficking. In May 2023, the country hanged a 37-year-old man for trafficking three pounds worth of cannabis, in addition to another person who had been hanged just weeks earlier.

“The current overemphasis on coercion and control in the fight against drugs is leading to an increase in human rights violations, despite mounting evidence that decades of criminalization and the so-called war on drugs have neither protected people’s well-being nor deterred drug-related crime,” Turk concluded.

The press release accompanying the report ends with a round of applause for countries that have worked to take action that protects the public and defends human rights through “evidence-based, gender-sensitive and harm-reduction approaches.”

The UN report contains a multi-level list of recommendations on how to approach drug policy in a new way and move away from harmful punitive models. These include proposals such as introducing decriminalization and introducing drug policies that “promote the rights of drug users” and provide medical care to treat drug-related illnesses (such as viral hepatitis or HIV through injection). It also proposes policies that do not result in parents removing their child from care or penalizing pregnant people. The report recommends, among many other strong, people-centred proposals, the abolition of the death penalty for all crimes, not just drug-related offences.

In 2024, the UN will review the 2019 Ministerial Declaration, which is an ongoing multi-year work plan to keep track of drug policy commitments made by member states. This review will lead to the development of drug policies to be addressed by 2029, with the aim of protecting human rights through the UN Agenda 2039.

In December 2020, a panel of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to reclassify cannabis. Although this recommendation did not guarantee that any member state would immediately legalize the possession and consumption of cannabis, it was still a monumental announcement. “This is a huge, historic victory for us, we couldn’t ask for anything more,” said independent drug policy researcher Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli. Many advocates welcomed the decision and hoped it would enable other countries to implement regulatory frameworks for cannabis.

It’s safe to say that in the last three years, many countries have begun to rethink their drug policies and move towards legalizing cannabis.

The country of Malta became the first country in the European Union to legalize cannabis in December 2021. At the beginning of July this year, Luxembourg became the second EU country to legalize cannabis. Thailand also removed weed from the list of banned substances in June 2022.

Other countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland are working on cannabis pilot programs to test how legal cannabis would work in their respective regions.