Recalibrating the Regime: The Need for a Human Rights Based Approach to International Drug Policy

Barrett, Damon

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1473763

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The international drug Conventions of the United Nations offer a framework in which law enforcement and the reduction of drug supply and use at the level of nation-state, takes precedence over public health and the protection of individual rights (Barrett et al, 2008; Elliot et al, 2005). That the Conventions, which were articulated in a time before HIV/AIDS, provide political leverage for nation-states to violate human rights to health is a major concern (Csete and Wolfe, 2008; Wolfe and Malinowska-Sempruch, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing Drug Users in Russia: Risk, Fear, and Structural Violence

Sarang

Rhodes

Sheon

et al. 2010

Substance Use & Misuse

121

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We undertook qualitative interviews with 209 injecting drug users (primarily heroin) in three Russian cities: Moscow, Barnaul, and Volgograd. We explored drug injectors' accounts of HIV and health risk. Policing practices and how these violate health and self emerged as a primary theme. Findings show that policing practices violate health and rights directly, but also indirectly, through the reproduction of social suffering. Extrajudicial policing practices produce fear and terror in the dayto-day lives of drug injectors, and ranged from the mundane (arrest without legal justification; the planting of evidence to expedite arrest or detainment; the extortion of money or drugs for police gain) to the extreme (physical violence as a means of facilitating 'confession' and as an act of 'moral' punishment without legal cause or rationale; the use of methods of 'torture'; and rape). We identify the concept of police bespredel -living with the sense that there are 'no limits' to police power -as key to perpetuating fear and terror, internalized stigma, and a sense of fatalist risk acceptance. 'Police besprediel' is analyzed as a form of structural violence, contributing to 'oppression illness'. Yet we also identify cases of resistance to such oppression, characterised by strategies to preserve dignity and hope. We identify hope for change as a resource of risk reduction as well as escape, if only temporarily, from the pervasiveness of social suffering. Future drug policies, and the state responses they sponsor, should set out to promote public health while protecting human rights, hope and human dignity.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing Drug Users in Russia: Risk, Fear, and Structural Violence

Sarang

Rhodes

Sheon

et al. 2010

Substance Use & Misuse

121

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Documented violations of human rights include interventions from harassment and denial of basic services to extortion, beatings, torture and execution [40]. …”

Section: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers To The Implementation Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While enshrining the war on drugs that defends abuses against drug users through its International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), its primary Charter entreats all UN committees to ‘promote solutions of international social, health and related problems, as well as universal respect for, and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without discrimination.’ [40]. …”

Section: Identifying and Overcoming Barriers To The Implementation Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of harm reduction in controlling HIV among injecting drug users

Wodak

McLeod

2008

Aids

108

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Injecting drug users (IDU) now account for one in 10 new HIV infections world wide. Yet it has been known since the early 1990s that HIV among IDU can be effectively, safely and cost-effectively controlled by the early and vigorous implementation of a comprehensive package of strategies known as ’harm reduction’. This concept means that decreasing drug-related harms is accorded an even higher priority than reduction of drug consumption. Strategies required involve: explicit and peer-based education about the risk of HIV from sharing injecting equipment; needle syringe programmes; drug treatment (including especially opiate substitution treatment) and community development. Many countries experiencing or threatened by an HIV epidemic among IDU have now adopted harm reduction but often implementation has been too little and too late. Although coverage is slowly improving in many countries, HIV is still spreading faster among IDU than harm reduction programmes while coverage in correctional centres lags far behind community settings. The scientific debate about harm reduction is now over. National and international support for harm reduction is growing while almost all the major UN organizations responsible for drug policy now support harm reduction. Only a small number of countries, led by the USA, are still vehemently opposed to harm reduction. Excessive reliance on drug law enforcement remains the major barrier to increased adoption of harm reduction. Sometimes zealous drug law enforcement undermines harm reduction. A more balanced approach to drug law enforcement is required with illicit drug use recognized primarily as a health and social problem.

show abstract

“…There have been attempts to move drug policy debates onward by arguing that article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (enshrining the right to privacy) entails a right to use drugs (Hunt, 2004), or by pointing to contradictions between the enforcement of UN drug conventions and the UN Charter or other legal instruments (Barrett, Lines, Schleifer, Elliott, & Bewley-Taylor, 2008;Bewley-Taylor, 2005;Mena & Hobbs, 2010). Given the widespread governmental commitment to such codified human rights (at least in rhetoric, if not so often in practice) and the ongoing development of case law in this area, it is valid for lawyers to continue to extend the application of these standards in the area of drug policy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drug policy, harm and human rights: A rationalist approach

Stevens

2011

International Journal of Drug Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: It has recently been argued that drug-related harms cannot be compared, so making it impossible to choose rationally between various drug policy options. Attempts to apply international human rights law to this area are valid, but have found it difficult to overcome the problems in applying codified human rights to issues of drug policy. Method: This article applies the rationalist ethical argument of Gewirth (1978) to this issue. It outlines his argument to the 'principle of generic consistency' and the hierarchy of basic, nonsubtractive and additive rights that it entails. It then applies these ideas to drug policy issues, such as whether there is a right to use drugs, whether the rights of drug 'addicts' can be limited, and how different harms can be compared in choosing between policies. Result: There is an additive right to use drugs, but only insofar as this right does not conflict with the basic and nonsubtractive rights of others. People whose freedom to choose whether to use drugs is compromised by compulsion have a right to receive treatment. They retain enforceable duties not to inflict harms on others. Policies which reduce harms to basic and nonsubtractive rights should be pursued, even if they lead to harms to additive rights. Conclusion: There exists a sound, rational, extra-legal basis for the discussion of drug policy and related harms which enables commensurable discussion of drug policy options.

show abstract

Recalibrating the Regime: The Need for a Human Rights Based Approach to International Drug Policy

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

Policing Drug Users in Russia: Risk, Fear, and Structural Violence

Policing Drug Users in Russia: Risk, Fear, and Structural Violence

The role of harm reduction in controlling HIV among injecting drug users

Drug policy, harm and human rights: A rationalist approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About