Submitted by crinadmin on
Damon Barrett was presenting a joint IHRA and Human Rights Watch statement as part of an interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture at the Human Rights Council. The statement called attention to the “list of human rights abuses committed in the name of the war on drugs” and how the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) “has never once condemned any of these abuses… [or] taken action to address them”. The CND, under ECOSOC recently adopted a new political declaration that will set the tone for international drug policy. We have learnt nothing from last ten years. It is difficult for us to lobby and to advocate for Human Rights and harm reduction because the Commission focuses on restrictive law enforcement based drug policies. In some countries, children as young as 12 begin to inject drugs. This is very dangerous. Yet, hardly no programmes are aimed at children and young people. UNAIDS estimates that the majority of newly infected people are under the age of 25. People would rather turn a blind eye. The message is always: kids should not use drugs. But the reality is they do! Prevention does not work for children who are already using drugs. A lot of children use drugs because their friends do, because it's fun, or to suppress hunger. Some are surrounded by drugs because of their parents or other ... it is not a deviant behaviour but something normal in their life. At the international level, there is not much focus on children and drugs. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the only Treaty that mentions drug use [Article 33]. The ILO Convention 182 refers to drugs but only in relation to trafficking. The Committee on the Rights of the Child recognises this in their General Comment on HIV and AIDS, but where programmes are designed to prevent transmission due to drugs they don't tend to target young people. The Concluding Observations are a bit formulaic on this. This the fault of governments and NGOs who are not reporting properly. Children should be seen as victims not criminals, but there is not much focus on what that means. Children are never consulted in relation to how policies are developed, especially children who use drugs. Many children are too afraid to talk to their parents. Children should be able to access confidential advice and information without without parental consent. Saying that advice and information encourages drug use is a myth. I think it is sometimes used to make the argument for zero tolerance. The CRC must say something more nuanced and complex. With drug trafficking, our solution to war is war. Children are pushed into this because of their situation. And how do we respond? With greater violence. Further information
The declaration is that it is very weak on human rights and does not mention harm reduction interventions aimed at reducing HVI transmissions relating to drugs. This is a big problem. There are an estimated 15.9 million injecting drug users around the world, outside of Sub Saharan Africa, 30 per cent of HIV transmissions are related to drug injection.
When they talk about the best interest of the child and drugs, it's still from a moralistic, ideological and zero tolerance point of view.