Participants at a high-level special event on the sidelines of the reconvened fifty-eighth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) have called for an approach to the world drug problem that puts people, health and human rights at the centre. Taking place in Vienna, Austria, from 9 to 11 December, the CND is holding preparatory discussions ahead of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the World Drug Problem, which will take place in New York, United States of America, in April 2016.
Co-organized by the governments of Colombia, Norway and Switzerland, the event was the latest in a series of consultations ahead of next year’s UNGASS and included the current CND chairperson, Arthayudh Srisamoot, and the chairperson of the UNGASS board, Khaled Shamaa. Moderating the debate, Switzerland’s Permanent Representative, Claude Wild, said he was happy that so many United Nations bodies had joined together to call for a rebalancing of drugs programmes and policies that focused more on people and less on the substances themselves.
Colombia’s Deputy Minister of Justice, Carlos Medina Ramirez, said a world without drugs was unattainable and that public health and human rights were the central issues to drugs control. As well as considering the needs of drug users, he said that other vulnerable people, such as farmers and people in poor communities, had to be taken into account when designing new strategies.
UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Luiz Loures, said the world now had enough knowledge to change the reality of the drugs problem. He said harm reduction policies, such as needle–syringe programmes and opioid substitution therapy, not only changed the lives of people directly affected but also saved billions of dollars in terms of global public health expenditure. People who inject drugs are 28 times more likely to become infected with HIV than the general population. Only 14% of people who inject drugs living with HIV have access to antiretroviral medicines.
In her contribution, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Flavia Pansieri, described five main areas of concern: the right to health; rights relating to criminal justice; ending discrimination, especially against women and ethnic minorities; the rights of the child; and the rights of indigenous peoples. She said that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights endorsed the calls of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS that states should consider decriminalizing the possession and use of drugs. Ms Pansieri added that she hoped the outcome document from the UNGASS would result in the future integration of human rights into domestic law and practice.
WHO’s Assistant Director-General, Marie-Paule Kieny, argued for a drug policy that was fit for purpose in the post-2015 agenda and for improved access to essential medicines. She said it was unacceptable that only 17% of people who need it had access to medicines for pain relief. With an ageing population, this problem was becoming more urgent, she added.
The Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Aldo Lale-Demoz, said that drug use required evidence-informed treatment rather than punishment. He said that UNODC believed in a move away from a sanction-oriented approach to a health approach. He said that law enforcement should concentrate on serious offences, such as the drugs trade and money laundering, while alternatives to punishment and imprisonment should be applied to minor offenders. He added that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals would require applying the rule of law as well as implementing effective, fair and humane drug control policies, strategies and programmes.
Heather Haase of the International Drug Policy Consortium said civil society was united in the need for a public health approach to the drug problem that was grounded in human rights and included people-centred and evidence-informed treatment, such as harm reduction.
