Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/12/27 supporting harm reduction

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council at its 12th regular session specifically supporting harm reduction measures in both preambular and operational paragraphs. This is the first time harm reduction has been explicitly supported by the Council. It had not been endorsed at the former Commission on Human Rights.

Human Rights Council Res 12/27 “The protection of human rights in the context of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)”

From the preamble:

‘Recognizing the need for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to significantly expand and strengthen its work with national Governments and to work with all groups of civil society to address the gap in access to services for injecting drug users in all settings, including prisons, to develop comprehensive models of appropriate service delivery for injecting drug users, to tackle the issues of stigmatization and discrimination, and to support increased capacity and resources for the provision of a comprehensive package of services for injecting drug users, including harm-reduction programmes in relation to HIV, as elaborated by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in the Technical Guide for countries to set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users, in accordance with relevant national circumstances’

In paragraph 5:

‘5. Recalls the commitment, as expressed by the General Assembly in its Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS on 2 June 2006, to intensifying efforts to ensure that a wide range of prevention programmes that take into account local circumstances, ethics and cultural values is available in all countries, particularly the most affected countries, including information, education and communication, in languages most understood by communities and respectful of cultures, aimed at reducing risk-taking behaviours and encouraging responsible sexual behaviour, including abstinence and fidelity, expanded access to essential commodities, including male and female condoms and sterile injecting equipment, harm-reduction efforts related to drug use, expanded access to voluntary and confidential counselling and testing, safe blood supplies, and early and effective treatment of sexually transmitted infections’

Download HRC Res 12/27

Faculty of Law, University College Cork

A seminar on human rights and drug policy will be held at the Faculty fo Law, University College Cork in Ireland on November 4th.  The seminar is being hosted by the LL.M. Programme in Criminal Justice, and sponsored by the International Harm Reduction Association.

‘Colombia’s High Court Says Drug Consumption Not a Crime’

BOGOTA – Colombia’s Supreme Court ruled that possession of illegal drugs for personal use is not a criminal offense, citing a 1994 decision by the country’s Constitutional Court, Caracol Radio said Wednesday.

Drug consumption “generates in a person problems of addiction and slavery that turn one into a sick, compulsive individual deserving of therapeutic medical treatment instead of a punishment,” the judges said.

Their ruling came in a case involving a man prosecuted for possession of 1.3 grams (.04 ounces) of cocaine. The court overturned his conviction and ordered him immediately released.

“In the exercise of his personal and private rights, the accused did not harm others,” so his conduct “cannot be the object of any punishment,” the Supreme Court found.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court said in 1994 that possession of illegal drugs within fixed limits was not subject to prosecution, but the hard-line government of President Alvaro Uribe is currently trying to undue that decision with a constitutional amendment.

The administration’s proposal was approved in June by the lower house of Congress and is now under review by a Senate committee.

Bogota receives around $500 million a year in mainly military aid from the United States as part of Plan Colombia, an initiative targeting the drug trade and armed irregulars.

The Argentine Supreme Court moved toward decriminalizing drug possession in a ruling last month that was hailed by President Cristina Fernandez’s government, which says the battle against the illegal drug trade should focus on high-level traffickers, not users.

In the Argentine case, the judges quashed a conviction for marijuana possession, though they did not proclaim the legalization of pot or any other drug.

(c) Latin American Herald Tribune

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‘The war on drugs has failed. Now we need a more humane strategy’ by Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso argues the case for a new global policy in The Observer, 6 September 2009.

It is time to admit the obvious. The “war on drugs” has failed, at least in the way it has been waged so far. In Latin America, the “unintended” consequences have been disastrous. Thousands of people have lost their lives in drug-associated violence. Drug lords have taken over entire communities. Misery has spread. Corruption is undermining fragile democracies.

And, after decades of over-flights, interdictions, spraying and raids on jungle drug factories, Latin America remains the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and marijuana. It is producing more and more opium and heroin. It is developing the capacity to mass-produce synthetic drugs.

Continuing the drugs war with more of the same is ludicrous. What is needed is a serious debate that will lead to the adoption of more humane and more effective strategies to deal with the global drug problem. Earlier this year the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which I co-chaired with the former president of Colombia, César Gaviria, and the former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, released the first high-level statement ever to endorse harm-reduction generally and decriminalisation of marijuana specifically.

The core conclusion of the statement is that a paradigm shift is required away from repression of drug users and towards treatment and prevention. The challenge is to reduce drastically the harm caused by illegal narcotics to people, societies and public institutions.

To move in this direction, it is essential to differentiate between illicit substances according to the harm they inflict. The status of addicts must change from that of drug buyers in the illegal market to that of patients cared for in the public health system. Police activities can then be better focused against the drug lords and organised crime.

The shift towards harm-reduction efforts and decriminalisation has already begun. Recently, a landmark ruling by Argentina’s supreme court and a law passed by Mexico’s Congress have for all practical purposes removed criminal penalties in those countries for the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal and immediate consumption.

Colombia was the first country to take this step. A decision by its constitutional court in 1994 scrapped penalties for private consumption. Bolivia and Ecuador have liberalised their drug laws. Change is also imminent in Brazil. The chief justice of our highest court made a public appeal for clarification of the differentiation between drug user and drug dealer. A current ambiguity in the law effectively opens opportunities for police corruption and extortion. Brazil’s legislature is about to consider a new law to remove penalties for the consumption of small amounts of marijuana.

This is consistent with the broader trend in Europe: the Netherlands decriminalised years ago; Portugal followed in 2001, stressing that criminalisation drove resources away from treatment and deterred people from seeking help for addiction – the number of people using drugs before decriminalisation was higher than afterwards. In the United States, backing for decriminalisation and treatment alternatives to prison is growing, but has still not achieved a critical mass of support and momentum behind traditional – failed – punitive policies remains strong.

There is still a long way to go. The trend towards decriminalisation for possession helps to empower a public health paradigm. It breaks the silence about the drug problem. It enables people to think in terms of approaching drug abuse in a way that is not first and foremost a matter for the criminal justice system. Reducing the harm caused by drugs goes hand in hand with reducing consumption.

Repressive policies towards drug users are firmly rooted in prejudice, fear and ideological visions, rather than in cold and hard assessment of the realities of drug abuse. The approach recommended in the commission’s statement does not imply complacency regarding narcotics and their purveyors. Abuse of drugs is harmful to health. Abused drugs undermine a user’s decision-making capacity. Needle-sharing spreads HIV/Aids and other diseases. Addiction can lead to financial ruin and abuse of family, especially children.

To be credible and effective, decriminalisation must be combined with robust prevention campaigns. The profound drop in tobacco consumption in recent decades shows how public information and prevention campaigns can be effective when they are based on messages that are consistent with the experience of those they target.

No country has devised a comprehensive solution to the drug abuse challenge. And a solution need not be a stark choice between prohibition and legalisation. Alternative approaches are being tested and must be carefully reviewed. But it is clear that the way forward will involve a strategy of reaching out, patiently and persistently, to the users, and not the continued waging of a misguided and counterproductive war that makes the users, rather than the drug lords, the primary victims.

• Fernando Henrique Cardoso was president of Brazil from 1995-2003

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