Organising an Event

If your university would like to organise a lecture on human rights and drug policy, please contact us at info@humanrightsanddrugs.org for more information

Doctoral Studentship in Human Rights and Drug Policy

The Irish Centre for Human Rights is currently accepting applications for a Doctoral Studentship in Human Rights and Drug Policy.

The successful candidate will pursue doctoral research on a subject related to human rights law and drug policy at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The Studentship is part of a new specialist research cluster at the Irish Centre for Human Rights dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related to drug laws, policy and enforcement. In addition to the doctoral research, the holder of the Studentship will be expected to participate in, and assist the cluster with, various activities related to its mandate.

The successful candidate must have a high proficiency in verbal and written English.

This Studentship is currently available for a period of 12-months, with a stipend of €16,000 plus tuition fees and some money for research travel, and a possibility for extension dependent upon funding. The Studentship is scheduled to begin 1 February 2010, and the holder is expected to reside in Galway, Ireland and work full-time at the Irish Centre for Human Rights.

Please submit a covering letter and curriculum vitae, as well as a 250-word outline of the proposed area of research, no later than Friday, 18 December 2009, to:

humanrights@nuigalway.ie

The successful candidate will be required to submit a full application for the doctoral programme, and the final award is conditional on admission by the University.

Call for papers: Children of the Drug War

Calling for proposals for a compilation of essays on the impact of the war on drugs on children and young people.

Proposals should be sent by email to childrenofthedrugwar@googlemail.com by Friday 29 January 2010.

Overview: “Children of the Drug War”, Damon Barrett (ed), iDebate Books

The war on drugs has had a devastating impact on the lives of children and young people all over the world. Young people have been excluded from school and excluded from healthcare services. They have experienced the loss of a parent or loved one due to HIV/AIDS or overdose. They have grown up with a primary caregiver incarcerated for minor drug offences. They have been incarcerated themselves or coerced into closed treatment centres. They have seen their communities uprooted due to crop eradication programmes or drug fuelled conflict to become statistics of human displacement. They have been forced into the drug trade and brutalised by organised criminals. The impacts of the drug war on children and young people are extensive and right in front of us. They are neither hidden nor trivial, but they are often ignored, and the perspectives of young people rarely taken into account.

This compilation of essays presents an opportunity to bring these many issues together. It is intended as a discussion piece to highlight the impacts of the war on drugs from the perspectives of children and young people and to promote a greater focus on children and young people in drug policies, nationally and internationally. The book will include a mix of essays from around the world covering the negative impacts of the war on drugs as well as highlighting the resilience of young people in extremely difficult circumstances and inspiring programmes working with them.

Guidelines for submissions

Proposals are invited from researchers, academics, service providers or users, social workers, NGOs, journalists etc.

Submissions are particularly welcome from young people.

The editor is looking for original, well-written and engaging essays. They may be based on existing research, interviews, personal experiences or they may be more narrative or journalistic in style.  Contributions based on the work of NGOs or youth services are also welcome.

Topics may range from broad policy analyses to case studies and may cover any aspect of the war on drugs so long as the focus is on the perspectives of, or impacts on, children and young people.

All papers must be submitted in English. The style is up to the individual contributor and should be described in the proposal. Those with more original subject matter and/or approach will be preferred. A mix of styles will be included in the final publication.

The proposal should be no more than 500 words. The final paper should be between 5,000 and 8,000 words. There is some flexibility in the final length, which may depend on subject matter or approach adopted.

Fees/Grants

There is no fee for contributions. A small grant may be available for proposals that require expenses in their development – e.g. an interview-based piece involving travel. Authors should specify if such costs are required in their proposals. Grants will not be available for all papers.

Submission

Proposals should be sent by email to childrenofthedrugwar@googlemail.com by Friday 29 January 2010.

Requests for information to Damon Barrett (Editor) at the same address.

http://childrenofthedrugwar.blogspot.com

The United Nations and Drug Policy: Towards a Human Rights Based Approach, by Damon Barrett and Manfred Nowak

Published in The Diversity of International Law: Essays in Honour of Professor Kalliopi K. Koufa, pp. 449-477, Aristotle Constantinides and Nikos Zaikos, eds., Brill/Martinus Nijhoff, 2009

Abstract

In 1945, the United Nations was established to ’save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’ Today, the language of war has been adopted for policy objectives. The ‘war on drugs’ is now more widespread and higher in financial and human cost than ever, and has impacted negatively across borders and across human rights protections. In much the same way as the ‘War on Terror,’ the war on drugs has left in its wake human rights abuses, worsening national and international security and barriers to sustainable development. Although UN bodies have never officially endorsed the term, for many human rights, public health, HIV and drug policy reform advocates – and for many of those on the front lines of the war on drugs, including indigenous people, farmers, people who use drugs and service providers – the United Nations drug control system is seen as a significant part of the drug problem, rather than part of the solution.

We argue that the aims of international drug policy must be revisited in line with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the binding normative framework of human rights. We argue further that the UN drug conventions are insufficient, alone, as a legal framework for the complex issue of drug policy and that human rights law must be recognised by the relevant organs of the UN as a part of that framework. The implications of this ‘expanded’ legal framework for the current pillars of international drug policy are then considered as are the human rights obligations of the drug control entities, and their possible future roles in the promotion and protection of human rights.

Available for download here