International Human Rights Law
The application of human rights law to drug laws and policies, and the consideration of drug control as a thematic area of human rights concern, are relatively recent developments. Traditionally, these branches of law and of policy have been considered practically detached from each other, leading Professor Paul Hunt to describe them as ‘parallel universes’.
Nonetheless, the intersections between these two branches of law and policy are many:
- Coercive drug dependence treatment and freedom from cruel inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to habeas corpus and a fair trial
- Harm reduction, the right to the highest attainable standard of health and the right to benefit from scientific progress
- The death penalty and the right to life and freedom from cruel inhuman and degrading punishment
- Corporal punishment for drug use
- Crop eradication and indigenous peoples rights and the right to food
- School drug testing and the right to privacy, school exclusion and the right to education
- Access to essential medicines and the right to health
- Incarceration and prisoners’ rights
- Discriminatory application of drugs laws
Etc.
While all human rights treaties are relevant to drug policies, very few specifically refer to drugs. The European Convention on Human Rights contains a reference to the ‘lawful detention of…alcoholics or drug addicts” as a limitation on the right to liberty of the person (Art 5). The most explicit in terms of setting out protections , however, are those relating to children:
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 33
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child – article 28, mirroring the CRC
ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour – article 3, relating to involvement in drug trafficking.
Various articles and reports on human rights law and drug policies are available in the issues and latest research sections of this website. It is, however, an area of law that requires considerable research and development, and the main reason the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy was established.