Created in 1988, ALCS is the most important AIDS NGO in Morocco. It is active in preventing AIDS among key affected populations and providing psychosocial care for people living with HIV. ALCS played a crucial part in access and generalisation of antiretroviral therapies. ALCS is committed in advocacy activities to defend human rights of people living with HIV and key affected populations.

Creada en 1988, ALCS es la ONG más importante trabajando sobre el HIV/SIDA en Marruecos. Es activa en la prevención del SIDA entre las principales poblaciones afectadas y atención psicosocial para las personas que viven con el VIH. ALCS jugó un papel crucial en el acceso y la generalización de los tratamientos antirretrovirales. ALCS está comprometida en actividades de promoción de la defensa de los derechos humanos de las personas que viven con el VIH y las principales poblaciones afectadas.

Créée en 1988, l'ALCS est l'ONG travaillant sur le SIDA la plus importante du Maroc. Elle est active dans la prévention du SIDA parmi les principales populations affectées et fournit des soins psychosociaux pour les personnes vivant avec le VIH. ALCS a joué un rôle crucial dans l'accès et à la généralisation des traitements antirétroviraux. ALCS est engagé dans des activités de plaidoyer pour la défense des droits des personnes vivant avec le VIH et les principales populations touchées.

Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS)

To: Ms Ghada Waly, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Subject: Open letter on UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day 2021

We urge you to mark International Human Rights Day 2021 by calling on Member States to change drug policies and practices that violate human rights and perpetuate inequality and discrimination.

We are writing to you ahead of International Human Rights Day 2021, which will take place on the 10th December amidst escalating global demands for the reform of laws and practices that entrench racial discrimination and social inequality, including drug policies. Last year, IDPC – together with dozens of other civil society and community organisations – called on you to issue a statement on International Human Rights Day urging Member States to change drug laws and practices that undermine health and human rights. A year later, we ask you to seize this day as an opportunity to show UNODC´s alignment with other UN entities in calling for an end to drug policies and practices that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, and violate human rights.

For decades, punitive drug policies have driven widespread human rights abuses, as has been amply documented by the UN. These include the death penalty for drug offences; extrajudicial killings; arbitrary detention, often masquerading as ‘rehabilitation’; the denial of access to life-saving harm reduction services; widespread barriers to accessing controlled medicines for pain relief; the criminalisation of people who use drugs, subsistence farmers and others groups in situations of vulnerability; corporal punishment; and mass incarceration. In all of these cases, draconian drug policies have disproportionately affected people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, thus entrenching inequality and discrimination.

Along 2021, a broad range of UN entities called on Member States to reform drug policies with discriminatory outcomes. In June 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a landmark study on arbitrary detention and drug polices, which found that ´

the war on drugs may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people. Its impact is often greatest on those who are poor, but also frequently overlaps with discrimination in law enforcement directed at vulnerable groups

´. At the same time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a new ‘Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality´, highlighting that ´

The discriminatory application of criminal law must be tackled at every stage, including by reforming drug-related policies

´. The High Commissioner´s proposal led to Human Rights Council Resolution 47/21, which contains key commitments to uproot systemic racism in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, adopted in June 2021, also showcased the international community´s commitment to ending inequalities as a step towards ending AIDS. Lastly, the new UN system Common Position on Incarceration, led by UNODC in partnership with other UN entities, notes ‘

the overrepresentation of minority and marginalized groups among prisoners, many of whom are charged with petty and nonviolent offences

support reform efforts aimed at ensuring proportionate and individualized sentencing and alternatives to conviction or punishment in appropriate cases, including for minor drug-related offences

These various commitments emerging across the United Nations are aligned with the 2018 Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drug-related matters, which makes clear that ‘

should be designed and implemented by States in accordance with their human rights obligations

’, and commits all UN agencies, including UNODC, to support drug policies ‘

that put people, health, and human rights at the centre

Similar human rights concerns have been highlighted in the just-released Global Drug Policy Index, which measures and ranks the national drug policies of 30 countries according to how well they align with the UN system Common Position on Drugs and its Task Team report of March 2019.

The theme of the 2021 International Human Rights Day is ‘Equality: Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights’, and is aimed at ´

addressing and finding solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in societies

´. As such, it presents a crucial opportunity for UNODC to align itself with other UN entities in calling for the end of policies that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, while highlighting its commitment to the promotion of human rights, in line with the UN system Common Positions.

It is in this context that we urge you to issue a strong statement on International Human Rights Day, calling on states to change the drug laws, policies and practices that violate health and human rights, and entrench inequality. To be credible, such a statement should explicitly acknowledge the disproportionate impact of drug laws and drug control on people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, and urge Member States to:

Abolish the death penalty in all circumstances. Imposing capital punishment for drug offences has been found to be contrary to international human rights law by the Human Rights Committee, and the Human Rights Council.

Put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings committed in the name of drug control, as has been repeatedly called for by the Human Rights Council and UN human rights experts.

Permanently close compulsory drug detention centres, including those that masquerade as ‘rehabilitation’, and implement voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services, as recently called for by sixteen UN agencies, including UNODC.

Stress the urgent need to provide accessible, affordable, and adequately funded harm reduction services in community and closed settings, to fulfil the right to health and the right to life of people who use drugs, as demanded by several UN human rights bodies and experts. This is also central to UNODC’s core role as lead UNAIDS co-sponsor regarding prisons and HIV amongst people who use drugs.

Take immediate measures to address prison overcrowding, as already recommended by UNODC and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting alternatives to incarceration, and ensuring proportionate sentencing for all drug offences, including by taking into account mitigating factors – in line with the basic principle that prisons should only be used as a last resort in all circumstances.

Ensure that people who use drugs are not subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment – whether in state custody or public or private drug services. While under detention, people with a drug dependence or health problems associated with their drug use must be offered evidence-based treatment, harm reduction and other drug services on a strictly voluntary basis.

Promote the end of all punishment for drug use, and drug possession and cultivation for personal use, as permitted within the three drug control conventions. Such policy shifts will help to end the stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion faced by people who use drugs, and to facilitate access to health and social services, as called for by the UN system Common Position, UNAIDS, and UN human rights bodies.

Make sure that drug policies incorporate a gender-sensitive perspective. This should be done by tailoring drug services to the specific needs of women, and by ensuring that criminal laws take into account the circumstances of women involved in drug offences, as most of them come from backgrounds of poverty, marginalisation, and oppression.

Clearly outline the ways in which UNODC will work to achieve these changes, and the measures being taken to ensure that human rights are effectively embedded as a core strand for all of the Office’s work.

As the lead UN agency in drug-related matters, UNODC has the responsibility to promote drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in a way that is consistent with the standards developed by the UN system, and in line with the commitments set in the UN system Common Positions on drugs and on incarceration. A strong statement in the forthcoming International Human Rights Day would be an important and welcome step to signal UNODC’s unequivocal commitment.

We look forward to discussing these concerns and recommendations with you.

NGOs urge UNODC's Executive Director to mark Human Rights Day with a call to reform drug policies that entrench inequality

Ahead of the UNAIDS Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on 16 September, 33 civil society and community-led organisations working on drug policy and harm reduction are urging the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (UNAIDS PCB) to uphold the rights of people who use drugs and harm reduction in the new UNAIDS Strategy.

This letter includes six key recommendations from our community and sector and we asking UNAIDS PCB to advocate for these at the upcoming Consultation.

Now, more than ever, we need their leadership to be strong, bold and unrelenting in ensuring that key populations, including people who inject drugs, are prioritised in the new UNAIDS Strategy; harm reduction services are available, scaled-up and fully funded to meet the HIV prevention and health needs of people who use drugs wherever needed; communities, including community-led services, and civil society are at the front and centre of the HIV response; and barriers to services, including criminalisation, stigma, discrimination, punitive laws and policies, are removed.

The new UNAIDS strategy will have profound implications - either by compounding or alleviating the political invisibility of people who use drugs. We need them to show a commitment to people who use drugs in your engagement in the Strategy process.

We will not end AIDS if we keep leaving people who inject drugs behind.

Call to uphold the rights of people who use drugs and harm reduction in the new UNAIDS Strategy

Em tempos de radicalização da violação de direitos e ameaça à democracia, é preciso defender a radicalidade da potência do cuidado. Para tanto apresentamos esta 

[1], região da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, onde se situa a Fundação Oswaldo Cruz[2] e diversas favelas e comunidades pobres que são constantemente atingidas pela nefasta e violenta política de guerra às drogas que criminaliza e autoriza ações bélicas, neste como em tantos outros territórios periféricos de toda a América Latina.

O mundo vive um momento de avanço das forças conservadoras, que na América Latina se expressa através da fragilização dos processos democráticos; no aprofundamento das iniquidades socioeconômicas; no aumento da fragmentação e segregação social. Tais dinâmicas, em seu conjunto, põem em risco direitos fundamentais. Exemplo emblemático foi a recente intervenção no bairro da Luz, na cidade de São Paulo. Durante quatro anos sustentou-se um projeto intersetorial inspirado nos princípios da Redução de Danos que visava articular ações de garantia de direitos à moradia, trabalho/renda e cuidado na região conhecida como “cracolândia”. Em maio de 2017 foi realizada uma operação policial com a intenção de uma “limpeza social”, com utilização do pânico moral para atender a interesses da especulação imobiliária. A violência e as arbitrariedades contra pessoas em situação de extrema pobreza e vulnerabilidade social, rotuladas como “viciados em crack”, seguiram-se por dias. Assim, uma política pública de cuidado, promoção da saúde e de direitos foi substituída pela repressão e violação de direitos.

Arbitrariedades como estas não são exclusivas do Brasil, e casos similares são encontrados em muitos lugares da América Latina, onde a droga funciona como pretexto para intervenção territorial. Ocorrem também outras situações de violência estrutural, como dificuldade de acesso a políticas públicas, assassinatos, prisões, exposição a doenças infectocontagiosas, falta de acesso a medicações e a políticas que garantam a cidadania.

As políticas de Redução de Danos, em seus esforços pela promoção da saúde, cidadania, direito à cidade, justiça social e direitos humanos das pessoas que usam drogas, não está isenta dos efeitos da conjuntura conservadora. O atual modelo de política de drogas opera seletivamente, criminalizando, encarcerando e estigmatizando sobretudo as populações mais pobres, moradoras de regiões periféricas, e de modo diferenciado as pessoas em situação de rua, negras, indígenas, mulheres e jovens.

As experiências bem sucedidas de cuidado são opostas à violência intervencionista defendida pelas políticas conservadoras. As evidências e o acúmulo político da Redução de Danos rejeitam propostas que não reconhecem a diversidade da experiência humana, e que se utilizem apenas da racionalidade biomédica e da criminalização de condutas consideradas desviantes. A Redução de Danos que realizamos no cotidiano de nossas práticas, em todo o continente, se apresenta como alternativa concreta ao fracasso de concepções e intervenções dicotômicas e simplistas. Não obstante, é preciso avançar ainda mais na direção de uma Redução de Danos interseccional, capaz de articular a defesa da reforma das políticas de drogas às lutas das mulheres, da população negra, dos povos indígenas, LGBTI’s e das múltiplas juventudes.

Diante disso, propomos a formulação de uma Redução de Danos inserida num projeto despenalizador e emancipatório, em que experiências subjetivas e corporais não sejam objeto de ações repressivas e disciplinadoras. A Redução de Danos, no atual contexto, é ferramenta potente de questionamento dos modelos de controle, implicando a afirmação e respeito à liberdade e autonomia das pessoas que usam drogas.

Consideramos urgente compartilhar nossas experiências e resistências, promovendo intercâmbios que consolidem nossa articulação Latino Americana em defesa de políticas públicas de Redução de Danos conectadas a reforma da política de drogas.

Assinam a Carta de Manguinhos as seguintes organizações e instituições:

Institutional Program on Alcohol, Crack and other Drugs of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - PACD/Fiocruz (Brazil)

International Drug Policy Consortium – IDPC

Brazilian Association of Harm Reduction Workers – ABORDA (Brazil)

Brazilian Platform on Drug Policy - PBPD (Brazil)

Brazilian Association of Collective Health – ABRASCO (Brazil)

Brazilian Association of Mental Health – ABRASME (Brazil)

Brazilian Network for Harm Reduction and Human Rights – REDUC (Brazil)

Intercambios Asociación Civil (Argentina)

Asociación Costarricense para el Estudio e Intervención em Drogas – ACEID (Costa Rica)

Acción Técnica Social – ATS (Colombia)

International Network of People who Use Drugs - INPUD

Pares en Acción-Reacción Contra la Exclusión Social - PARCES (Colombia)

Centro Cáritas de Formación para la Atención de las Farmacodependencias y Situaciones Críticas Asociadas (Mexico)

Associação Brasileira Multidisciplinar sobre Drogas - ABRAMD (Brazil)

Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais Rio de Janeiro – GTNM/RJ (Brazil)

Iniciativa Negra por uma Nova Política de Drogas – INNPD (Brazil)

Associação Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré (Brazil)

Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento - APDES (Portugal)

Drug Policy Alliance – DPA (United States)

Washington Office on Latin America – WOLA (United States)

International Centre for Science in Drug Policy – ICSDP (Canada)

South Indian Harm Reduction Network – SIHRN (India)

Transform Drug Policy Foundation (United Kingdom)

Union for Improved Services, Communication and Education (Ireland)

Teenswatch Community Harm Reduction (Kenia)

Centro de Prevención de las Adicciones de Bariloche (Argentina)

Fundación Latinoamérica Reforma (Chile)

Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral - 

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Jamaica)

Fédération Bruxelloise Francophone des Institutions pour Toxicomane – FEDITO (Belgium)

Association de lutte contre le sida – ALCS (Marocos)

Global Call to Action Against Poverty - GCAP (Burundi)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Australia)

Association des Guides du Congo – AGC (Congo)

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPS (United States)

Washington Heights Corner Project (United States)

New York Harm Reduction Educators (United States)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy - SSDP (United States)

Elementa Consultoría en Derechos (Colombia)

Andean Information Network - AIN (Bolivia)

Puente, Investigacion y Enlace - PIE (Bolivia)

Estudiantes por una Política Sensata de Drogas (Costa Rica)

Asociación de Vecinos La Teja Barial (Uruguay)

Observatorio de cultivos y cultivadores declarados ilícitos - OCCDI (Colombia)

Corporación Humanas - Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Género (Colombia)

Instituto Helena Greco de Direitos Humanos e Cidadania (Brazil)

Conselho Regional de Serviço Social do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Coletivo Balance de Redução de Danos (Brazil)

Associação Brasileira de Estudos Sociais sobre o Uso de Psicoativos - ABESUP (Brazil)

Laboratório de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre Psicoativos – LEIPSI (Brazil)

Centro de Pesquisa, Intervenção e Avaliação em Álcool e Drogas – CREPEIA (Brazil)

Centro de Referência sobre Drogas e Vulnerabilidades Associadas da UNB Ceilândia (Brazil)

Rede Nacional de Feministas Antiproibiocionistas - RENFA (Brazil)

Associação Multidisciplinar de Estudos sobre a Maconha Medicinal - AMEMM (Brazil)

Grupo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Substâncias Psicoativas - GIESP/UFBA (Brazil)

Fórum Intersetorial de Drogas e Direitos Humanos de São Paulo - FIDDH (Brazil)

Fórum Estadual de Redução de Danos de São Paulo - FERD (Brazil)

Dispositivo de Abordaje Territorial Rosario - DIAT (Argentina)

New Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing – New PATH (United States)

Carta de Manguinhos: Um apelo global para proteger a redução de danos na América Latina

At a time when rights violations and threats to democracy are deepening, it is necessary to defend the fundamental role of care. With this in mind, we present this 

, a region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Fiocruz[2] and, much more drastically, many favelas and poor communities have been constantly hit by despicable and violent war-on-drugs policies that criminalize drug users and authorize warlike actions on whole populations, like in so many other marginalized regions across Latin America and the world.

The world is currently witnessing a rise in conservative forces which, in Latin America, has translated into the weakening of democratic processes; the deepening of socioeconomic inequities; and an exacerbation of social breakdown and segregation. Taken together, such dynamics risk undermining fundamental rights. One emblematic example is the recent intervention that took place in the District of Luz, in the city of São Paulo. For four years, a multisectoral project inspired by the principles of harm reduction aimed to articulate actions to guarantee the right to housing, work / income and care in the region known as "

" A police operation aimed at "social cleansing" took place in May 2017, using moral panic to serve the interests of real estate speculators. This was followed by weeks of violence and arbitrary actions against socially vulnerable people living in extreme poverty, labeled as "crack addicts." A public policy focusing on care, health and promoting rights was thus replaced with repression and rights violations.

Such arbitrariness is not limited to Brazil – similar cases can be found in many areas of Latin America, where the presence of drugs serves as a pretext for territorial intervention. Other forms of structural violence include difficulties in accessing public services, murders, incarceration, exposure to infectious diseases, lack of access to medicines and absence of policies that aim to protect citizens’ rights.

Because of their focus on promoting health, citizenship, the right to access the city, social justice and drug users’ human rights, harm reduction policies have not been exempt from the effects of the conservative juncture. The current drug policy model is implemented selectively, by specifically criminalizing, imprisoning and stigmatizing the poorest groups living in marginal regions, homeless people, black and/or indigenous people, as well as women and youth.

Successful approaches focusing on care reject the interventionist violence defended by conservative policies. The evidences, ethic and political knowhow of harm reduction reject policies that fail to recognize the diversity of human experience and only rely on biomedical rationality and the criminalization of what is considered to be divergent behaviors. The harm reduction interventions that we are carrying out in our daily lives across the continent - and perhaps in other parts of the world - represent a concrete alternative to failed binary and simplistic concepts and interventions. It is nevertheless necessary to move even further towards a multisectoral harm reduction approach that is capable of articulating support for drug policy reform with the struggles of women, blacks, indigenous peoples, LGBTI and youth.

Given this situation, we propose a harm reduction approach grounded in decriminalization and emancipation, in which subjective and corporeal experiences are no longer exposed to repressive and disciplinary actions. Harm reduction is a powerful tool to question current models of control, and includes the promotion and respect for the freedom and autonomy of people who use drugs.

We consider it urgent to share our experiences and resistance, and promote a dialogue in Latin America - and elsewhere - with the view of consolidating our argument in defense of public harm reduction policies as they relate to drug policy reform.

The following organizations and institutions sign the 

Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral - 

Letter from Manguinhos: A global call to protect harm reduction in Latin America

LONDON (2nd August 2016) – Civil society groups from across the globe, 

have called on UN drug control authorities to urge an immediate stop to the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders in the Philippines. Since 10th May 2016, more than 700 people have been killed by police and vigilantes in the Philippines for being suspected of using or dealing drugs, as a direct result of recently-elected President Duterte’s campaign to eradicate crime within six months.

Until now, however, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) – the UN agencies responsible for global drug control – have failed to condemn the Philippines for these gross human rights violations committed in the name of drug control.

375 non-governmental organisations today sent an open letter to the UNODC Executive Director, Mr. Yury Fedotov, and the INCB President, Mr. Werner Sipp, asking them to take immediate action aimed at putting a stop to the extrajudicial killings.

“We are calling on the UN drug control bodies to publicly condemn these atrocities in the Philippines. This senseless killing cannot be justified as a drug control measure”, said Ann Fordham, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium. “Their silence is unacceptable, while people are being killed on the streets day after day”, she continued.

The open letter asks the UNODC and the INCB to call on President Duterte to:

Immediately end the incitements to kill people suspected of using or dealing drugs,

Act to fulfil international human rights obligations, such as the rights to life, health, due process and a fair trial, as set out in the human rights treaties ratified by the Philippines,

Promote evidence-based, voluntary treatment and harm reduction services for people who use drugs instead of compulsory rehabilitation in military camps, and

Not to reinstate the death penalty for drug offences.

Senior Research and Communications Officer

*******************************************

Key data on the Philippines drug policy crisis:

President Rodrigo Duterte was elected President on 30th May 2016 and began his presidential term on 30th June. He declared a war on drugs in which both police and civilians are encouraged to kill drug user/traffickers

704 people have been killed between the 10th of May 2016 to the 29th of July 2016 (ABS CBN News)

Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar said 60,000 drug dependents have surrendered to authorities (Daily Mail).

Statements by international human rights groups:

Amnesty International, 10th May: Philippines: New President should break cycle of human rights violations, not compound them

Amnesty International, 30 June: Philippines: President Duterte must break the cycle of human rights violations

Human Rights Watch, 25th July: President Duterte’s Mixed Messages on Rights in the Philippines

Human Rights Watch, 12th July: Philippine Officials Shrug at Surge in Drug Killings

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates & Citizen’s Council for Human Rights, 14th July: Stop the bloodshed, human rights defenders tell Duterte

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates & Citizen’s Council for Human Rights, 14th July: Extra Judicial Killings: Normalizing Criminality Under the Guise of Peace and Order

Drug Policy Alliance, 25th July: Philippines President Makes Good on Pledge to Mass Murder People Who Use or Sell Drugs, Calls for "No Mercy" in State of the Nation Address

Asian Network of People Who Use Drugs & International Network of People Who Use Drugs, July: Philippines: An Entreaty to End the Killing, to End the Poverty and Exclusion

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Over 300 NGOs call on the United Nations to take immediate action on the hundreds of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders in the Philippines

Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS)

Region

Translations

Related Content

NGOs urge UNODC's Executive Director to mark Human Rights Day with a call to reform drug policies that entrench inequality

Call to uphold the rights of people who use drugs and harm reduction in the new UNAIDS Strategy

Carta de Manguinhos: Um apelo global para proteger a redução de danos na América Latina

Letter from Manguinhos: A global call to protect harm reduction in Latin America

Over 300 NGOs call on the United Nations to take immediate action on the hundreds of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug offenders in the Philippines