Conectas is a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization founded in São Paulo/Brazil in September 2001. Conectas develops its activities through three programs - South-South, Foreign Policy and Justice - that interact together and encompass national, regional and international activities. The individual projects of each program aim to strengthen human rights defenders and academics in the Global South and to foster interaction between them, through collaborative networks. They also aim to strengthen international protection of human rights by monitoring the foreign policy of Global South countries. In Brazil, Conectas promotes advocacy, strategic and public interest litigation. Conectas was accorded consultative status with the ECOSOC-UN in 2006, and observer status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2009.

Conectas es una organización no gubernamental y sin ánimo de lucro fundada en São Paulo (Brasil) en septiembre de 2001. Conectas desarrolla sus actividades a través de tres programas: Sur-Sur, Política Exterior y Justicia, que interactúan e involucran acciones a nivel nacional, regional e internacional. Los proyectos individuales de cada programa tienen como objetivo fortalecer a defensores de los derechos humanos y académicos en el Sur Global y fomentar la interacción entre ellos a través de redes colaborativas. También tienen como objetivo fortalecer la protección internacional de los derechos humanos mediante el seguimiento de la política exterior de los países del Sur Global. En Brasil, Conectas promueve la incidencia política y litigios estratégicos y de interés público.

Conectas est une organisation non gouvernementale et à but non lucratif fondée à São Paulo (Brésil) en septembre 2001. Conectas développe ses activités par le biais de trois programmes: Sud-Sud, Politique étrangère et Justice, qui interagissent et comportent des actions au niveau national, régional et international. Les projets individuels de chaque programme visent à soutenir les défenseurs des droits humains et les universitaires dans le Sud mondial et à favoriser leur interaction par le biais de réseaux collaboratifs. Ils visent également à renforcer la protection internationale des droits de l'homme en surveillant la politique étrangère des pays du Sud Global. Au Brésil, Conectas favorise le plaidoyer et les litiges stratégiques et d'intérêt public.

Conectas

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

Conectas Direitos Humanos (Conectas), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and Iniciativa Negra por uma Nova Política de Drogas (INNPD),

 welcome the opportunity to provide input to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding the List of Issues of the forthcoming periodic review of Brazil by the Committee. In particular, this submission will focus on the serious violation of the rights to health of people who use drugs in Brazil.

2. The information on the number of people who use drugs in Brazil is limited, and incomplete. After years of investment, the government censored the publication of the official drug-use census, conducted by an internationally respected research center, as the new administration disagreed with the results, which disproved the so-called “drug epidemic” that fuels draconian drug laws and policies being adopted in the countryi. For 2017, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported a 1% prevalence of cocaine use, and a 0.1% prevalence of heroin use as of 2017.ii However, people who use drugs are disproportionately affected by health harms, such as blood-borne diseases and mental health conditions; for instance, HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs in Brazil is estimated at 9.9%,iii while in the general population that rate is 20 times lower, at 0.5%.iv The failure to produce and make available qualified data on drug use is part of the control process that gives substance to the war on drugs, compromises the elaboration of effective public policies, reinforces stigmas, and feeds on Brazilian structural racism.

3. In recent years, the Brazilian authorities have consistently reduced the public funding and support for evidence-based and rights compliant drug services, including harm reduction services. This submission will focus on three aspects in which this has impacted the right to health of people who use drugs in Brazil:

a. The lack of access to evidence-based harm reduction services, which has become more pressing due to the government’s rejection of harm reduction in its National Drug Policy, and due to the closure of several centres.

b. Increased public investment and support for abstinence-based drug ‘rehabilitation’ centres, which do not provide evidence-based drug treatment, and where shocking cases of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have been reported.

c. The increasing criminalisation of drug use and of possession for personal use, which acts as a barrier to accessing health services, and has driven a major increase in the number of incarcerated people, particularly amongst those belonging to marginalised communities.

Submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic and Social Rights ahead of Brazil’s periodic review

We, members and representatives of the viral hepatitis community—a community that includes people living with viral hepatitis, doctors, nurses, social workers, researchers, public health experts, and people who use drugs—are concerned over the growing gap between the enormous impact of hepatitis B and hepatitis C over people who use drugs and their almost non-existent access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment services around the world.

Sharing unsterile drug injecting equipment puts people at high risk of hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections. Globally it is estimated that among the 15.6 million people who currently inject drugs 52% are hepatitis C antibody positive, and 9% are living with chronic hepatitis B infection; From a public health and human rights perspective, improving access to prevention and treatment for people who use drugs is crucial to reducing hepatitis C incidence and eliminating the epidemic, as sharing of needles, syringes and other injecting equipment is estimated to account for 23% of new infections.

Ensuring access to interventions such as low-threshold needle and syringe programmes, opioid substitution therapy, hepatitis C treatment and other harm reduction interventions are essential to reduce hepatitis C incidence and prevalence among people who inject drugs, and these interventions are cost-effective. In 2016, the Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the first ever Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) on viral hepatitis. It identified harm reduction as one of five core interventions needed to reach the goal of viral hepatitis elimination by 2030.

Please click here to add your organisation's endorsement to the Declaration.

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