Corporación Humanas Chile is a center of feminist studies and political action created more than ten years ago focusing its efforts on the promotion and defense of the human rights of women in Chile and Latin America.

Corporación Humanas es un centro de estudios y acción política feminista que hace más de diez años focaliza sus esfuerzos en la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos de las mujeres. La tarea de Humanas está definida por la búsqueda de la aplicación de los más altos estándares internacionales en materia de derechos humanos y justicia de género en Chile y en la región. Dentro de sus líneas de trabajo realiza seguimiento y monitoreo de la labor legislativa, de manera de garantizar la adecuación de las normas nacionales a esos estándares internacionales. Junto con la dimensión nacional del trabajo, Humanas realiza seguimiento y monitoreo al cumplimiento de las obligaciones internacionales que ha contraído Chile en materia de Derechos Humanos. Como organismo de la sociedad civil con status consultivo ante Naciones Unidas, elabora informes alternativos para órganos de tratados, así como a otras instancias de protección de los derechos humanos, contribuyendo a la adopción de recomendaciones por parte de estos organismos. Una de las líneas principales de intervención es la producción de conocimiento, para dar cuenta de la situación y condición de las mujeres en el ámbito de los derechos humanos y la justicia de género y por otra parte generar propuestas y estrategias destinadas a contribuir a la superación de la discriminación. Una segunda línea de intervención es la formación y capacitación en DDHH de las Mujeres y Justicia de Género. Corporación Humanas realiza cursos en las más prestigiosas facultades de Derecho del país e implementa talleres con funcionarios/as públicos/as. La última línea de intervención es el fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil en materia de vigilancia y control social, que acompañada de una estrategia de litigio emblemático contribuye al fortalecimiento de la democracia y a una mayor vigencia de los derechos humanos de las mujeres.

Corporación Humanas Chile est un centre d'études féministe et d'action politique concentrant ses efforts sur la promotion et la défense des droits fondamentaux des femmes au Chili et dans la région.

Corporación Humanas Chile

Punitive drug policies have not only failed to reduce the scale of the illicit drug trade, they have also resulted in an exacerbation of the violence, stigma, discrimination, poverty and marginalisation faced by women. Today, women are the fastest growing prison population in the world, and this increase is mainly driven by repressive drug policies. In some Latin American countries, 60 to 80% of the female prison population is incarcerated for low-level, non-violent drug-related offences. Most women in prison are from poor households, many are single mothers responsible for several children and other dependents.

The UNGASS on drugs, held in April 2016, has been critical to reframe drug control debates away from repression and towards a human rights and development-oriented approach. The UNGASS was also an opportunity to incorporate a gender component in UN drug policies.

This event will highlight the harms faced by women involved in the illicit drug market, especially in relation to violence, incarceration and human rights abuses. Panellists will also highlight some possible mechanisms for UN human rights bodies, in particular CEDAW, to engage in global drug control debates in the post-UNGASS period. The event will end with a description of how these steps can be implemented both at global and national level with the experience of Costa Rica.


Moderator: Cristina González, Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the United Nations

Maria del Pilar Saborío de Rocafort, Costa Rican Ambassador in Vienna

Paulo de Tarso Lugon Arantes, Geneva Representative CELS, Conectas, Humanas

Marie Nougier, International Drug Policy Consortium


International Drug Policy Consortium, the Washington Office on Latin America, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Corporacion Humanas Chile, Conectas, co-sponsored by the governments of Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay

If you wish to attend, please email Juan Fernandez (jfernandez@idpc.net).

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

The impact of drug control on women: Exacerbating violence and human rights abuses

Delivered by Mr. Paulo de Tarso Lugon Arantes on behalf of Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Conectas Human Rights, and Corporación Humanas

Mr. President, This Council has debated throughout last year the effects of drug policies on human rights, which led to a resolution contributing to the UNGASS on Drug Policies, this year in New York, by requesting a landmark report from the High Commissioner and a Panel that gathered diverse views.

Distinguished Delegates, Violence against women and disproportionate gender impact form the noxious of the noxious effects of the failed “war on drugs”. Besides these several effects highlighted by the High Commissioner’s1 report, like high incarceration rates, this is especially serious when considering that most women who live in poverty have been subjected to physical, sexual and psychological violence through their lives. Most of them are involved in non-violent crimes, with small amounts of drugs and have no real responsibility within the criminal organization. This phenomenon has led to the label of feminization of drug trafficking, which is in turn, related to the feminization of poverty.

The impact of imprisonment of mothers and caregivers, in particular, can be devastating, not only for them, but also for their families and communities.

Oral statement to Human Rights Council on the disproportionate effects of the drug war on women

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

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

Decades of punitive drug policies intended to suppress illegal drug supply and demand have achieved little, even as they have generated enormous damage and human and financial costs throughout the Americas.

In March 2014, a group of 17 organizations from 11 countries was granted a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to analyze the impact of current drug policies on human rights. The hearing was the first on the topic in the body’s history, and signaled growing questioning of the drug policy status quo. The group’s testimony has now been published as a report by CELS, which analyzes the harmful effects of the ‘War on Drugs’ throughout the Americas, and concludes that human rights and violence reduction should be the main drug policy objectives.

Speakers will present the report’s findings, including the militarization of public security forces in Latin America and the effects of drug policy on women in the region. An analysis of the latest developments in criminal justice reform in the United States will also be presented.


Senior Fellow, Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS)




Researcher, Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH)




Washington Legislative Office, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)




Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)


from Conectas, organizations that also contributed to a joint report on the topic, will also be present to answer questions.

To RSVP, please click here. A light lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Adam Schaffer at aschaffer@wola.org or (202) 797-2171. A livestream of the event will be available at www.wola.org.

The impact of drug policy on human rights in the Americas

More than 80 social organizations from various regions of the world condemned the enforced disappearance of 43 Mexican students in the context of that country’s “War on Drugs” and failed security policies, which only serve to spawn more violence and institutional corruption. We urge the Mexican State to investigate the disappearances and punish these crimes.

The consequences of the ‘War on Drugs’ in Mexico: executions and enforced disappearances of students

For a month now, 43 Mexican students—ages 17 to 25, from the teacher training college Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa—have been missing after a series of violent episodes that allegedly involved, among others, Iguala’s municipal police in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.

These tragic events, in which 6 people were killed and 20 injured, once again reveal the social cost of the so-called War on Drugs in Mexico and its failed security policy. Both have resulted in more violence, grave human rights violations committed by the security forces themselves, and increasing levels of state corruption.

On September 26th, about 80 students from the Escuela Normal in Ayotzinapa were held up by local police while travelling in three buses. Without notice, police blocked the road and opened fire indiscriminately, killing and wounding 26 people. The surviving students witnessed how municipal police made their classmates get into cars. However, they were never taken before any judicial authority.

Various Mexican State forces have been looking for the missing 43 students, discovering clandestine graves with unidentified corpses in the vicinity of Iguala. Victims’ relatives are waiting for the result of tests by independent experts to identify the bodies. However, as additional clandestine graves are found, more questions emerge in this already dramatic scenario regarding the quantity of bodies surreptitiously buried in that area of the country.

It is essential that a paradigm shift be effected in drug and security policies to avoid similar cases of institutional violence and corruption in the future.

Social organizations elsewhere echo the demand of victims’ relatives and Mexican human rights groups that a search-and-rescue mission be carried out for the 43 students. We also urge the Mexican State to investigate and punish these crimes, as well as determine all the political responsibilities involved.

‘They took them alive, we want them back alive!’

Abogadas y Abogados del Noroeste Argentino en Derechos Humanos y Estudios Sociales- ANDHES, Argentina

Abogadas y Abogados para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos, Mexico

AIDS Foundation East-West- AFEW, The Netherlands

Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos- APDH, Argentina

Asistencia Legal por los Derechos Humanos- ASILEGAL, Mexico

Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia – ACIJ, Argentina

Asociación de Reporteros Gráficos de la Republica Argentina- ARGRA, Argentina

Asociación Lucha por la Identidad Travesti – Transexual- ALITT, Argentina

Asociación para la Prevención de la Tortura- APT

Asociación para la Unidad de Nuestra América- AUNA, Argentina

Asociación Para Una Vida Mejor de Personas Infectadas/Afectadas por el VIH-Sida en Honduras- APUVIMEH, Honduras

Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos- APRODEH, Peru

Associação Juízes para a Democracia- AJD, Brazil

Brazilian Harm Reduction Network- REDUC, Brazil

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir- CDD, Argentina

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, Spain

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Mexico

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Venezuela

Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, AC, Mexico

Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo S.J.”- CSMM, Ecuador

Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales- CELS, Argentina

Centro de Investigación Drogas y Derechos Humanos- CIDDH, Peru

Centro de Políticas Públicas y Derechos Humanos, Peru

Centro de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos- Promsex, Peru

Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos, Nicaragua

Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional- CEJIL

Colectiva Mujer y Salud de República Dominicana, Dominican Republic

Comisión de Justicia y Paz de Colombia, Colombia

Comisión Ecuménica de Derechos Humanos- CEDHU, Ecuador

Comisión Mexicana para la Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos- CMDPDH, Mexico

Comité de América y Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de las Mujeres- CLADEM

Comité de Familiares de las Víctimas- COFAVIC, Venezuela

Coordinadora de Trabajo Carcelario (Rosario - Santa Fe), Argentina

Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Peru

Defensa de Niñas y Niños Internacional- DNI, Costa Rica

Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C.

Documenta, análisis y acción para la justicia social, Mexico

Drug Policy Project, Institute for Policy Studies, United States

Due Process of Law Foundation- DPLF, United States

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights- EIPR, Egypt

Equipo de Reflexión, Invetigación y Comunicación de la Compañía de Jesús, Honduras.

Escuela de Derechos Humanos de la Defensoria del Pueblo, Venezuela

Fundación Memoria Histórica y Social, Argentina

Fundar Centro de Análisis e Investigación, Mexico

Grupo Interdisciplinario por los Derechos Humanos- GIDH, Colombia

Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas- IBASE, Brazil

Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala –ICCPG, Guatemala

Instituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales- IELSUR, Uruguay

Instituto de Género, Derecho y Desarrollo- INSGENAR, Argentina

International Drug Policy Consortium- IDPC

Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Línea fundadora, Argentina

Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres, Nicaragua

Movimiento por la Paz con Justicia y Dignidad, Mexico

Oficina Jurídica para la Mujer de Cochabamba – OJM, Bolivia

Plataforma Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrollo- PIDHDD Regional

Programa de Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos de la Facultad de derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina

Sinergia, Asociación Venezolana de Organizaciones de Sociedad Civil, Venezuela

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, United States

Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos – UDEFEGUA, Guatemala

Washington Office on Latin America- WOLA, United States

Instituto Lationamericano de Seguridad y Democracia- ILSED

One month after 43 Mexican students disappeared

The undersigned organizations welcome the open debate on drug policies that have driven some countries of Latin America in recent months. General Assembly to be held in the former will be an opportunity to discuss the limits and harms of existing policies and the possible adoption of alternatives.

In recent years it has become even more evident the need to discuss the scope and relevance of drug policy adopted in each of the countries of the Americas, as empirical evidence has emerged solid, broad and diverse that such policies are ineffective and have serious negative effects, especially if they are analyzed from a human rights perspective. Prohibitionist policies and the war on drugs have intensified violent conflict in the region, to create a huge illegal market controlled by complex criminal organizations. These conflicts are generally located in impoverished areas, further deepening the deterioration of living conditions and stigmatization of its inhabitants.

In our capacity as organizations promoting respect and effective guarantee of human rights we want to emphasize that the review of drug policy in the region is necessary both empirical and normative reasons.

From an empirical, evidence-based research, increasingly clearly show that drug policies are having a negative impact on human rights in the region. On the one hand, tend to repressive policies directly violate human rights of thousands of people, especially those that their redress, often without the basic criminal guarantees compliance, and those who are sent to jail, as they often face inhumane conditions, such as those associated with overcrowding. These policies tend to have disproportionate impacts on certain groups, especially vulnerable and in that way, and end breed discrimination violating fundamental rights.

Moreover, prohibitionist policies have contributed to the formation of armed groups engaged in criminal activity that stands between drug trafficking and violent phenomena that produce important and in this way affect the rights of people in the Americas. Because violence is the primary form of illegal market regulation, trafficking of prohibited substances is necessarily accompanied by the traffic in arms, fighting for territories, corruption and undermining democratic institutions, especially the police, the justice and government institutions. The revision of the paradigm of the 'war on drugs' should be seen as part of an initiative to reduce violence.

From a policy perspective it is also clear today that the international human rights obligations should prevail over those who have acquired on psychoactive substances prohibited or controlled. This is due to international commitments in human rights law ranks higher, as the duty of states to respect human rights is a mandate that is based in the United Nations Charter, a treaty that predominates over any another convention, and also the principle of the duty of states to respect human rights has been considered by many as a standard indoctrinators Ius cogens or peremptory norm of international law, which does not support an agreement to the contrary. Therefore, the international drug law should be understood and interpreted, and if necessary adapted, in a manner that is consistent with international human rights obligations. The guiding principle of policy should always be centered on the citizen, and the protection of their rights.

This model has served to broaden prohibitionist social gaps, economic inequities, political differences and international asymmetries. Specific and effective practices of states show that the international regime around drugs has not changed in the century that has elapsed since its initial configuration. Importantly, this regimen as rigid a critical juncture for both its credibility and its legitimacy are seriously eroded.

Therefore, we call on the governments of the Americas to strengthen their commitments to human rights against drug policy, and to that extent, discuss and rethink existing initiatives, in order to place human rights in the center of the debate.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Estados Unidos

Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva (ABRASCO), Brasil

Associação Brasileira de Saúde Mental (ABRASME), Brasil

Asociación Civil por el Derecho a la Salud, Argentina

Associação pela Reforma Prisional (ARP), Brasil

Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH), Perú

Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) – Canadá

Centro de Análisis Forense y Ciencias Aplicadas (CAFCA), Guatemala

Centro Brasileiro de Estudos de Saúde (CEBES), Brasil

Centro Cáritas de formación para la atención de las farmacodependencias y situaciones críticas asociadas, Mexico

Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Centro Prodh), México.

Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”, México

Centro de Direitos Econômicos e Sociais (CDES), Brasil

Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Argentina

Centro de Estudos de Segurança e Cidadania da Universidade Cândido Mendes, Brasil

Centro de Investigación Drogas y Derechos Humanos (CIDDH), Perú.

Colectivo por una Política Integral de Drogas (CUPIHD), México

Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, Colombia

Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos (COFADEH), Honduras

Consorcio Internacional sobre Políticas de drogas (IDPC)

Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (CODEHUPY), Paraguay

Coordinación Nacional de Organizaciones de Mujeres Trabajadoras Rurales e Indígenas (CONAMURI), Paraguay

Dejusticia – Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad, Colombia

Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), Estados Unidos

Gabinete de Assessoria Jurídica às Organizações Populares (GAJOP), Brasil

Harm Reduction Coalition (HRC), Estados Unidos

Intercambios Asociación Civil, Argentina

Instituto de Defesa do Direito de Defesa (IDDD), Brasil

Instituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales del Uruguay (IELSUR), Uruguay

México Unido contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), México

Movimiento de Mujeres por la Paz Visitación Padilla, Honduras

Movimento Nacional da Luta Antimanicomial (MNLA), Brasil

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Pueblos Indígenas, Argentina

Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de Rio Negro, Argentina

Oficina de Washington para Latinoamérica (WOLA), Estados Unidos

Puente, Investigación y Enlace (PIE), Bolivia

Red Chilena de Reducción de Daños, Chile.

Corporación Humanas Chile

Region

Translations

Related Content

The impact of drug control on women: Exacerbating violence and human rights abuses

Oral statement to Human Rights Council on the disproportionate effects of the drug war on women

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

The impact of drug policy on human rights in the Americas

One month after 43 Mexican students disappeared

Open Letter to the governments of the region present in the OAS General Assembly