Mexican human rights group asks ICC to probe president and top officials

Reuters reported that a group of human rights activits have requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a formal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mexico.

They are asking the world’s first permanent war crimes court to investigate “the deaths of hundreds of civilians at the hands of the military and drug traffickers in Mexico, where more than 45,000 have died in drug-related violence since 2006.”

Netzai Sandoval, Mexican human rights lawyer and member of the group that filed the complaint to the ICC, told Reuters: “We want the prosecutor to tell us if war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Mexico, and if the president and other top officials are responsible.”

The petition, signed by 23,000 Mexican citizens, also calls for an investigation on the responsibility of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna, and Mexico’s army and navy commanders.

President Calderon has deployed 50,000 troops throughout the country since 2006, while the “federal police have swelled from 6,000 to 35,000.”

Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented systematic violations of citizens. According to a report published this November, HRW has documented evidence of 170 cases of torture, 24 extrajudicial killings and 39 forced disappearances in five Mexican states.

The Mexican government denies the complaint arguing that security policy issues cannot constitute an international crime.

To read the full story, click here.

Children of the Drug War: Webcast of the seminar held at LSE’s Mannheim Centre for Criminology

The Mannheim Centre for Criminology (LSE) held on November 22 a specialty seminar to mark the publication of “Children of the Drug War: Perspectives on the Impact of Drug Policies in Young People”.

The panel, chaired by Damon Barrett, editor of ‘Children of the Drug War’ included three of the contributors of ‘Children of the Drug War’. Jennifer Fleetwood, lecturer at the University of Kent, who talked about the impact of the ‘war on drugs’ on women and children in Ecuador’s prisons.

Michael Shiner, lecturer at the London School of Economics, talked about the limits of harm reduction in England and Wales and addressing drug use among young people. Steve Rolles, from Transform and author of ‘After of War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation’, presented ideas about how to better protect children and young people through State regulation instead of prohibition. He argued that the prohibition paradigm instead of reducing the harms from drugs, has actually increased it, either by the availability of impure or contaminated drugs in the market or through the violence associated with actors trying to control the illlict drug market.

Damon Barrett concluded the discussion by saying that drug policy tends to obscure the human side of it. Underpinned by concepts and such as in “prison populations” and “seizures” drug control hides from our view the people targeted by drug control, and as a result we might run the risk of overlooking the harms caused by inadequate policies.

To listen to the seminar, click here

To download the book, click here

In the best interests of the child? Children, drugs and the law

In September 2011 The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy delivered two lectures at Guangxi University in China. Damon Barrett’s lecture was about children, drugs and the law, focusing on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. His prezi slides are below.

Children of the Drug War: Specialty Seminar at LSE

The Mannheim Centre for Criminology is holding a speciality seminar to mark the publication of Children of the Drug War by Damon Barrett.

When? Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 6 :00-7 :30 pm.

Where? Moot Court Room, 7th floor, New Academic Building, Lincoln’s Inn Fields

Chaired by Damon Barrett

Speakers: Jennifer Fleetwood – Mothers and Children of the Drug War : A View from a Women’s Prison in Quito, Ecuador.

Steve Rolles – After the War on Drugs : How Legal Regulation of Production and Trade Would Better Protect Children

Michael Shiner – Taking Drugs Together: Early Adult Transitions and the Limits of Harm Reduction in England and Wales

About the book

Children of the Drug War is a unique collection of original essays that investigates the impacts of the war on drugs on children, young people and their families. With contributions from around the world, providing different perspectives and utilizing a wide range of styles and approaches including ethnographic studies, personal accounts and interviews, the book asks fundamental questions of national and international drug control systems:

•What have been the costs to children and young people of the war on drugs?
•Is the protection of children from drugs a solid justification for current policies?
•What kinds of public fears and preconceptions exist in relation to drugs and the drug trade?
•How can children and young people be placed at the forefront of drug policies?

For further details see http://www.childrenofthedrugwar.org/

About the speakers

Damon Barrett is Senior Human Rights Analyst at Harm Reduction International.

Jennifer Fleetwood Is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent.

Steve Rolles is Senior Policy Analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation.

Michael Shiner is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at the London School of Economics.

RSVP: If you are planning to attend please let Michael Shiner know (m.shiner@lse.ac.uk)

Children of the Drug War in Ciudad Juarez

In the city of Juarez, about 7,000 children have become orphans of the ‘War on Drugs’. Read the transcript of the story by David Fuentes on how the violence in the Northern state of Mexico has affected children and their families.

Story by David Fuentes (W Radio, Chihuahua Correspondent)

On this “Day of the Dead”, cemeteries in this borderland will be packed as a result of the people executed in the war against drugs.

According to state authorities [Chihuahua], the number of violent deaths in the state was over 10,000. The “narco-violence” also affected hundredths of families and 7,000 children orphans, only in Ciudad Juarez.

The so called “orphans of the violence” are being assisted by authorities through psychological treatment, education or food, through the programme “We are all Juarez”. Last week, Bertha Gomez Duarte, head of the Deparment for the Development of Families [known as DIF] gave the first 2000 scholarships, and said the 7000 orphans will be protected by the end of the first semester of 2012.

The Civil Registries explained earlier this year that the number of insurance claims made by families after the death of a relative have increased up to 300 per cent, as well as grandparents or other relatives filing child-custody requests. In this sense, in order to prevent children from growing up resentful and joining drug cartels to avenge the murder of a loved one, state authorities are giving workshops, psychotherapy, and ‘game activities’ in poverty stricken areas in order to cut the vicious circle [of violence].

To hear the story in Spanish, click here:

Orphans of the War on Drugs in Mexico

According to the Commission for Vulnerable Groups of the Mexican Deputies’ Chamber, there are 40,000 children who have become orphans as a result from the Drug War related violence.

W Radio, a nation-wide broadcasting company in Mexico, is airing a series of stories on the impact of the war on drugs on children and youth. Their Tamaulipas State correspondent interviewed on October 31 Raul Carrillo Garcia, Director of the Support Centre for People in Grief and Member of the Mexican Association of Thanatology.

Carrillo Garcia said that the North-Eastern State of Tamaulipas has a deficit of experts who can handle and provide proper attention for the orphans of the War on Drugs . Without specialized care to relief and assist children during the process of grief, these orphans face emotional and physical distress in the short and long term.

He explained that while children younger than 6 cannot really understand death, 9-year-old children do,  and the consequences of that understanding can be quite serious.  Carrillo stressed that authorities have to make sure that children process the death of a loved one so that they don’t carry it with them throughout their lives.

But state institutions are not properly equipped to deal with orphans of the drug-related violence. Few receive personalized help and the authorities do not give differential care for children who have lost a parent from crime.  

The  inherent vulnerability  of children  and the deficit of professionals specialized in treating orphans who have lost a parent from violent crime prevents children of policemen, soldiers and crime suspects from getting the necessary support  and exposing them to risk.

Listen to the interview in Spanish in:

University of British Columbia, 10 November

 

Damon Barrett, co-founder of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy,  will be discussing one of Canada’s most important recent legal cases: the battle over the legality of Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection facility, and its implications on global drug policy.

Pivot Legal Society lawyer, Scott Bernstein, who represented Pivot at the Supreme Court on the Insite case, will speak to his experiences in this landmark ruling, and Damon Barrett will speak about harm reduction and drug policy on a global scale. The talk will be followed by a question and answer period.

Location:  UBC – Alllard Hall (Law Faculty), Room 106 [note room has changed!]

Time: 12:30-1:30 pm

 

University of Bristol Law School, 28 November

The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy will be holding a seminar entitled ‘Drug control: the need for thematic human rights focus’ for law students at the University of Bristol Law School on Monday, 28 November from 2-4pm.  The lecture will be held in Room 1.05 on the first floor of the Wills Memorial Building.

Faculty of Law, Trinity College Dublin, 4 November

The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy will be holding a lecture for law students at Trinity College, Dublin on Friday, 4 November at 1pm.