World Drug Day 2024: Human rights and harm reduction take centre stage while UN drugs agency grapples with denial

“The end of the war on drugs, as this is a war on people, is necessary. I urge all states to be centred on dignity, public health and human rights.”

Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, 56th Session of the Human Rights Council, 24th June 2024

Today, on 26th June, thousands of activists are taking to the streets in over 290 cities, across 80+ countries, to mark the 12th Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action and will loudly echo the grave and welcome call from the current UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr Mofokeng made just two days ago as she presented her landmark report on ‘Drug use, harm reduction and the right to health’ to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. With this seminal publication, she joins the ranks of a growing number of UN human rights experts who have raised the alarm on repressive and punitive drug laws, citing systematic and widespread abuses of human rights. In fact today, an unprecedented 21 special procedures of the Human Rights Council have released a statement that unequivocally concludes:

“The UN, Member States and the international community as a whole should shift from punishment towards support, through a gender-responsive harm reduction approach, the decriminalisation of drug use and related activities, and the responsible regulation of all drugs to eliminate profits from illegal trafficking, criminality and violence.”

Dr Mofokeng’s report, which centres harm reduction (including ending criminalisation) in protecting and promoting public health while contributing to the realisation of human rights is extremely timely. Earlier this year, at the 67th Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), member states adopted the first ever CND resolution to explicitly mention ‘harm reduction’, ending the senseless taboo on the term and breaking the outdated Vienna Consensus. This CND was also the first time that a High Commissioner for Human Rights attended in person. In his powerful address to the Commission, Volker Türk made it clear: ‘After decades of following a largely punitive approach, we can see this simply is not working’.

The 26th of June is also the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking – which is when the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launches its annual World Drug Report. It is always an impressive document that provides a huge array of data on global trends in drug markets, as well as an analysis of the various policies in place to address the ‘world drug problem’. But this report has long been criticised by IDPC and others for failing to highlight the devastating human rights toll of punitive drug control, and for refusing to condemn responses that have clearly undermined the health, well-being, safety and security of communities affected by prohibition in all corners of the world.

There was some level of expectation that this year might be different. Firstly, it was understood that there would be a thematic chapter focusing on the right to health. This theme is particularly pertinent in the midst of the ongoing overdose crisis and the fact that people who inject drugs are 14 times more likely to acquire HIV than the general population. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the CND, UNODC’s governing body, had finally accepted the term ‘harm reduction’ in a resolution led by the agency’s biggest funder, the United States (in response to a toxic drug supply that has resulted in some 500,000 deaths in the past five years). Finally, this year’s World Drug Report follows hot on the heels of Dr Mofokeng’s report and could certainly have echoed some of the messaging given her role as a global authority on the right to health.

UNODC ignores the flurry of evidence on other essential harm reduction services – including drug checking, overdose prevention centres, as well as housing, employment and education, all explicitly discussed in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

Spoiler alert….. the chapter, titled ‘the right to health in the framework of drug use’, is deeply disappointing and lacks credibility from a human rights standpoint. Not least among the most problematic aspects of the chapter is the failure to explicitly use the term ‘harm reduction’, which is curious given the resolution which was supported by the great majority of CND members (38 states in favour, 2 against and 6 abstentions). Instead of recognising harm reduction as an essential pillar of drug policy and critical to ensuring the right to health, these measures are included as part of drug treatment services, and limited to the comprehensive package of HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions for people who inject drugs. In so doing, the UNODC ignores the flurry of evidence on other essential harm reduction services – including drug checking, overdose prevention centres, as well as housing, employment and education, all explicitly discussed in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

The UNODC also demonstrates how drastically out of step it is with the general UN system position in failing to clearly acknowledge how the criminalisation and punishment of people who use drugs drives stigma, discrimination and undermines the right to health. In fact, the chapter seems to suggest that there is no need to reconsider the international approach to drug control, when concluding that ‘The goal of fulfilling the right to health, as articulated in this chapter, does not preclude or contradict the goals of reducing illicit supply and demand of drugs, or with the functioning of the international drug control system’. This denial is also at odds with the increasing recognition by UN Member States that a serious review of the UN drug control regime is needed (see the Statement of 62 countries led by Colombia at the 67th Session of the CND).

Finally, in failing to adequately centre the chapter on the populations that are often stigmatised and discriminated against in the context of drug use and the enforcement of drug laws and policies (as Dr Mofokeng has done in her report) UNODC risks further stigmatising people who use drugs. Stating that “Drug use may negatively impact families and entire communities” (pg 133) is deeply problematic, as this fuels a dangerous and false narrative that any drug use creates harm in the wider community. This framing could be used to justify the criminalisation of people who use drugs with the aim of protecting communities by creating a ‘drug-free society’. This formulation is not new. It has been used regularly by various Member States in UN drug debates over the years and it is concerning to see UNODC’s attempts to legitimise it.

This chapter has been a true missed opportunity by UNODC to realign itself the emerging UN consensus that urgent policy reforms are overdue, and to unequivocally support harm reduction and decriminalisation. Its reticence to do so costs lives.

This chapter has been a true missed opportunity by UNODC to realign itself the emerging UN consensus that urgent policy reforms are overdue, and to unequivocally support harm reduction and decriminalisation. Its reticence to do so costs lives.

There can be no doubt that international drug policy is at a crossroads and it is hard to imagine that a moment of reckoning is not drawing nearer. The billions spent on law enforcement each year to stem the illegal drug trade have had no impact in reducing the scale of the market. In fact, the rest of the World Drug Report is a sobering read towards this end - a chronicle of the robustness, diversity and exponentially increasing nature of the global drug market. The human suffering caused by the ‘war on drugs’ is the urgent impetus to change course and this is no time for denial. On this 26th June, we stand in solidarity with all the activists marking the Support. Don’t Punish global day of action - and say enough is enough. It is time to end the ‘war on drugs’.