DeJuSticia is an investigation centre created in 2003 by a group of university professors to promote social inclusion, democracy, the State of law and human rights in Colombia and Latin America.

DeJuSticia es un centro de investigación creado en 2003 por un grupo de profesores universitarios para promover la inclusión social, la democracia, el estado de derecho y los derechos humanos en Colombia y América Latina.

DeJusticia est un centre d’investigation créé en 2003 par un groupe de professeurs d’université qui promeut l’intégration sociale, la démocratie, l’Etat de droit et les droits humains en Colombie et en Amérique Latine.

Dejusticia

“Justice condemns women with a double penalty for being a woman… especially as a low-income woman, you’re invisible in the system until you commit a crime. Then, they finally see you.” —Nora Laura Calandra, co-founder of La Rama de Libertadxs y Familiares.

The incarceration of women is growing at alarming rates worldwide and in Latin America it is driven by strict drug laws, with devastating consequences for the women impacted and their families. Their stories unveil contexts of poverty, lack of opportunity, and physical and sexual violence, and also reveal the discrimination of unjust legal systems and societies plagued by stigmatization and patriarchal attitudes. But they are also stories of resilience, as women coming out of prison in Latin America today are organizing and fighting for their human rights and the right to live with dignity.

In response to the growing crisis of women’s incarceration in Latin America, in 2015 organizations, experts and activists created a Working Group on Women, Drug Policies, and Incarceration, led by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Colombian NGO, Centro de Estudios de Derechos, Justicia y Sociedad – Dejusticia. Our objective is to significantly reduce the number of women deprived of liberty in Latin America, providing analysis and public policy recommendations and participating in advocacy initiatives at the international, regional, and national levels.

The purpose of this report is to reflect on almost ten years of collective research and joint advocacy by the working group, its achievements and disappointments, as well as challenges and opportunities for the future.

Justice is setting them free: Women, drug policies, and incarceration in Latin America

Thursday, 12 October 2023 / 15:00 - 16:30 (CET - Vienna)

The event will be available in English and Spanish.

As Vienna prepares for a high-level ‘mid-term review’ in March 2024 to take stock of progress made and challenges remaining for the international drug control regime, the past 10 months have already seen a number of important developments from across the United Nations system. From New York and the adoption by vote of a bold new General Assembly resolution on drugs in December 2022, to Geneva and the adoption of the third Human Rights Council resolution on drug policy paving the way for the new OHCHR report on drug policy, to the ongoing preparations in Vienna and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs – there is a great deal to take stock of and a busy period of activity approaching.

This online event will shine a light on some of the key UN developments, and their implications for the ongoing push for drug policies that advance social justice and human rights. The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) will present their comprehensive 

, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will present their new report on the human rights implications of drug policy, and participants will have the opportunity to learn about and discuss these and other key developments.

, Global Commission on Drug Policy, former Minister of Justice and Human Rights of Peru and former UN Special Rapporteur on the on the independence of judges and lawyers

, Advisor on Human Rights and Drug Policy, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

, Head of Research and Communications, International Drug Policy Consortium

, Ambassador, Permanent Representation of Ghana to the United Nations in Vienna

, Senior Coordinator - Drug Policy, Dejusticia

Boiling point: Understanding new developments in global drug policy, and why they matter 

Wednesday, 20th September 2023, 13:30 - 15:00 (Geneva - CET)


Organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in collaboration with Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Greece, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay, UNAIDS, Amnesty International, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Dejusticia, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Harm Reduction International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the International Drug Policy Consortium, the International Network of People Who Use Drugs and the Open Society Foundation.

The Panel will provide a platform for international human rights experts, representatives of State and civil society organisations to discuss findings and recommendations of the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on ‘

Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem

Abdoul Thioye, Chief, Rule of Law, Equality and Non-discrimination Branch, OHCHR

Nekane Lavin, Human Rights Officer, OHCHR

Ann Fordham, Executive Director, International Drug Policy Consortium

Haryati Binti Jonet, Member, Asian Network of People Who Use Drugs

José Ignacio Juarèz Garcia, Director, Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico

Hélène Tigroudja, Member, Human Rights Committee

Suki Beavers, Director, Gender Equality, Human Rights and Community Engagement, UNAIDS

Diego García-Sayán, Commissioner, Global Commission on Drug Policy

Special event: Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem

Organised by Dejusticia, Drug Policy Alliance, the European Network of People who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD), GAT Portugal, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the Manas Grupo de Apoio Mútuo project, Release, the South African Network of People who Use Drugs (SANPUD), the Support. Don't Punish campaign & TalkingDrugs

 Tuesday, 3 October - 10:00 (Bogotá) / 11:00 (New York) / 16:00 (London / Lisbon) / 17:00 (Cape Town) - 

The fight for drug decriminalisation is at a critical juncture. Historically championed by community-led organisations and civil society, the movement to remove criminal penalties for activities related to drug use has gained momentum as an increasing number of jurisdictions around the world embrace this legal framework. Crucially, the 

United Nations system recently threw its weight behind decriminalisation

, signalling a global shift in perspective. However, this progress is not without its challenges. In certain regions, reactionary responses point fingers at decriminalisation for the fallout of failing systems of care and social protection, endangering its broader acceptance. Adding complexity to this landscape, most of the 

 where decriminalisation is currently in practice have adopted models that counterproductively perpetuate surveillance, control and punitive measures within a system intended to foster autonomy and wellbeing. Moreover, these models often fall short in allocating the necessary resources for the crucial infrastructure of support that decriminalisation is meant to facilitate access to.

 map, as well as from the experiences and insights of colleagues from across the globe, this event seeks to dispel myths surrounding decriminalisation and showcase exemplary practices. Importantly, it embraces a critical perspective on decriminalisation not to undermine its progress or capitulate to prohibitionist orthodoxies but rather to refine and further enhance this framework in service of our communities.

Juan Fernández Ochoa, International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

André Belchior Gomes, Release & TalkingDrugs - United Kingdom

Theshia Naidoo, Drug Policy Alliance - United States

Joana Canêdo, European Network of People who Use Drugs (EuroNPUD) & Manas Grupo de Apoio Mútuo - Portugal

Angela McBride, South African Network of People Who Use Drugs (SANPUD) - South Africa

In defence of decriminalisation —a baseline upon which to build sustainable drug policy

Drugs are not the Devil, but nor are they child’s play. A drug policy that would be respectful of human rights and safeguard public health must lie at an intermediate point between full liberalization and the prohibition currently in place.

The debate about regulating cannabis for adult use is on the public agenda. In our view, the best policy on marijua-
na that a State can develop is the regulation of its cultivation, manufacture and use, focused on reducing marijuana’s comparative impact in illegal economies and drug tracking networks; protecting public health; promoting rural development in prioritized areas; and promoting reparation measures financed with the resources arising from regulation. Drugs are not the devil, but nor are they child’s play. A drug policy that would be respectful of human rights and safeguard public health must lie at an intermediate point between full liberalization and the prohibition currently in place.

In this document, based on a comparative analysis of the regulations issued in Uruguay, Canada and the United States and by applying the Principles and Guidelines for Human Rights in Fiscal Policy, we argue for the importance of a fiscal framework based on collecting taxes in the cannabis market and focused on mobilizing the maximum amount of available resources to finance the goals of reducing the illegal market, preserving public health and assisting the populations affected by drug policy, as set forth in the cannabis regulations.

Fiscal policy in the regulation of adult-use cannabis in Colombia

: Oct 27, 10am - 12pm ET / 27 de oct 9am-11am Bogotá

Isabel Pereira, Deputy Director, Dejusticia; @Dejusticia_en @Dejusticia 

Santiago Tobón, Visiting Professor, University of Chicago; Professor, Economics, EAFIT; @SantiagoTobon @EAFIT 

María Alejandra Vélez, Director, Center for the Study of Security and Drugs, Universidad de los Andes; @MajaVelez @CesedUniandes 

Ana Arjona, Associate Professor, Northwestern University; @anamarjona @PoliSciatNU @redesdal 

Ken Frankel, President, Canadian Council for the Americas; @knfrankel @CCACANADA

Colombia drug policy reform: a suggested roadmap

Reflections on a webinar on drug policies and Indigenous rights

For decades, drug policy has been a vehicle of oppression violating Indigenous rights. From forced crop eradication to the ban on traditional uses of psychoactive plants, repressive drug policy has taken away lives and livelihoods, while ripping Indigenous peoples away from their ancestral identities and ways of living.

It was primarily for this reason that Indigenous rights’ advocates gathered online last month, on this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, to debate how we shall move forward and repair these harms in the webinar ‘The War on Drugs and the Denial of Indigenous Rights’.

Taking its cruellest form in the imperialist 'war on drugs', drug prohibition operates alongside other systems of oppression and exploitation, from corporate and state-funded land grabs or extractivism, to mass incarceration and globalised police power.

Such oppressive structures have disproportionately harmed Indigenous peoples and other communities of colour. For example, Tuari Potiki - Director of Maori Development at University of Otago – noted during the webinar that Indigenous Māori people make up only 16 percent of the population of Aotearoa/New Zealand, but nearly 60 percent of the country’s prison population is comprised of Māori people. The situation is similar, if not worse, for Indigenous peoples elsewhere – exacerbated by numerous systemic factors like poor access to healthcare and housing.

Lest we forget, these colonially rooted forms of oppression are not as old as humanity’s long and complex history with consciousness altering experiences, such as the medicinal and spiritual uses of psychoactive substances (either from plants, fungi, or even animals) and practices like trance-inducing dance, healing and other rituals core to a number of Indigenous traditions. Indigenous peoples, rights activists, and the drug reform movement must come together to ensure that Indigenous practices outlive prohibition.

There have been signs of progress when it comes to the UN system and its various mechanisms to support Indigenous rights. Note the 1989 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (despite it being ratified by only 24 states), and the importance of documents like the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by unanimity at the UN General Assembly, and later cited briefly in the Outcome Document of the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs.

Still, the contradictions and obstacles within the UN system are most starkly illustrated by the tensions between drug control and Indigenous rights. The foundational treaty of the UN drug control system, the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, is inherently colonial and racist. It aims to eliminate the non-medical (including traditional and Indigenous) uses of substances grown and used by racialised communities, namely the coca leaf, cannabis, and opium.

During the webinar, the intervention of Bolivia’s Vice-President, David Choquehuanca (read by Ambassador Roberto Calzadilla) highlighted Bolivia’s 2009 request to amend the 1961 Convention to reclaim the cultural significance of the coca leaf. This move was blocked by a group of countries led by the United States. Bolivia then withdrew from the 1961 Convention and later signed it again with a reservation to coca prohibition. Though this reservation applies to Bolivia alone, a group of rich countries once again joined forces to attempt to thwart this gracious effort to repair this undemocratic system. Vice-President, David Choquehuanca concluded his intervention with a call on all countries that protested against Bolivia’s reservation to formally remove their objection, directing this in particular to Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The growing recognition that drug policies must be compliant with human rights provisions has started to encompass more seriously the need to ensure cultural, traditional, and Indigenous rights are not violated in the name of drug control. As Natalia Rebollo – a human rights lawyer working at the International Centre for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS) – explained in the webinar, in Europe these dynamics have also helped advocates challenge the criminalisation of Andean and other migrants who use the coca leaf as part of their cultural practices.

Nevertheless, these efforts are not enough. To truly support Indigenous rights, we need to pay attention to the bigger picture and look beyond drug prohibition.

The commodification of and value extraction from nature has been central to a wide array of imperial and colonial projects. This has included psychoactive plants like coca, cannabis, opium (in addition to other crops like tea and entire ecosystems like forests). Such projects not only brought immense wealth for the privileged few, but they also disrupted peoples’ relationship with nature, as for example shown in the transformation of cannabis culture in the Rif (Morocco) between 1912 and 1956.

These processes of empire-building through extraction and dispossession long preceded the global drug prohibition era (part of which was even shaped by the economic interests of pharmaceutical companies from the global north). In fact, these processes continue until today, affecting Indigenous communities albeit in more subtle ways.

Thus, we need to make visible (and seek to dismantle) unjust forms of value extraction and profit maximisation done on the backs of the oppressed, especially those happening in tandem with the global drug control regime. These include, but are not limited to, the growing power of corporations and investors (many of whom notorious for violating Indigenous rights) in psychedelic therapy, in legal cannabis, in the security-industrial complex, as well as in medicine and healthcare.

Though well beyond the scope of this piece, other related forms of dispossession should also be factored in, such as land grabs and forced displacement for the sake of agribusiness, ‘conservation’, and infrastructure projects. All these factors undermine the rights of Indigenous peoples as a whole, especially their right to self-determination as upheld by international human rights law. Such destructive forces have also worsened our climate crisis, while undermining Indigenous communities who have long served as the guardians of our planet (and whose sustainable practices might as well be the key to ensuring our future on Earth).

Beyond recognition: Indigenous liberation through a radically decolonial lens

As the global drug prohibition discourse slowly crumbles, so too does the taboo surrounding ancestral and Indigenous traditions involving psychoactive substances. In recognition of the medicinal potential of substances like psilocybin, researchers and companies are seeking funds and patents in the name of scientific and medical breakthroughs.

But we need so much more than recognition. Supporting Indigenous rights and liberation requires us to take a radically decolonial approach to systematically address the trans-sectoral and transnational nature of oppressive structures, which, though significantly influenced by European colonialism, extend well beyond it. Thirteenth century Egypt, for example, adopted anti-cannabis policies to suppress a movement deemed subversive by the elite. These policies were rarely enforced and did little to undermine cannabis’ medicinal importance, but the motives behind them were not far different from those of colonisers who banned peyote in Mexico in 1620, and surely of (neo)colonial and imperial powers in the 20th and 21st century.

More importantly, supporting Indigenous rights and self-determination means rallying around a 

‘communal approach, in which we are all in this together, no one is left behind, and everything is shared’, 

as highlighted in the webinar by Freddy Condo Riveros, Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In the case of drugs, we need to challenge neoliberal developments in psychedelic research that use intellectual property to privatise and commodify – rather than respect and honour – Indigenous cultures. We also need to support Indigenous growers in fighting neocolonial cannabis policies anchored in accumulation, as we have witnessed in many Latin American and African countries (especially those with fertile soil and abundant resources long coveted by global north elites). As voiced by Greek Zweni (traditional health practitioner and spokesperson for Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network), Indigenous growers in Mpondoland might lose their income and/or be subject to further criminalisation due to South Africa’s new cannabis bill. Though praised by some, the bill neglects the fact that only the rich few are privileged enough to grow cannabis solely for their own consumption, while much of South Africa’s rural poor grow cannabis to make ends meet.

In line with this collective spirit of Indigenous critique of modern society, we also need to abolish structures of exploitation to restore the communal uses of land, the rivers, and the seas. We need to fight for biodiversity, epistemic justice, reparations, and so much more. The struggle for epistemic justice is a controversial but crucial one – for decolonial struggles in general, and Indigenous liberation in particular. This requires taking a critical (albeit constructive) stance towards the international human rights corpus and Western biomedicine, whose practices should integrate Indigenous epistemologies.

Needless to say, Indigenous leaders and communities around the globe have no other option but to reclaim their space. Tuari Potiki, in his rationale behind the International Indigenous Drug Policy Network, underlines:

‘As Indigenous peoples, we need to get together ourselves… put our own motions and recommendations forward… rather than constantly having to knock on their door, rather than continuing being a subgroup or a subset of another group, or having to try to convince people who have shown through history to be unwilling to change their mind – that there’s a different way of doing things…’

As noted by Freddy Condo Riveros, Indigenous cultures ‘

respect life, harmony, reciprocity, and complementarity.

’ Like them, we need to stop operating in silos and acknowledge the interconnectedness of today’s crises, from drug-related imprisonment to forest fires. Fulfilling Indigenous rights in drug policy is an important step. But in the long run, in order to achieve Indigenous liberation, we need to go beyond drugs – for this is key to ending all the interdependent systems of oppression that have torn us apart.

Beyond drugs and drug policy: Towards transformative Indigenous liberation

Statement on behalf of Dejusticia (Colombia), Intercambios Asociación Civil (Argentina), Mexico Unido contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), the Costa Rican Association for the Study and Intervention on Drugs (ACEID), the Latin American and Caribbean Network of People who Use Drugs (LANPUD), the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of 192 organisations working to promote human rights-based drug policy, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global network of more than 190 organizations working to promote drug policies based on human rights, human security, social inclusion, development and health.

Declaración en nombre del Centro de Estudios de Derecho, Justicia y Sociedad (Dejusticia), Intercambios Asociación Civil, México Unido contra la Delincuencia (MUCD), la Asociación Costarricense para el Estudio e Intervención en Drogas (ACEID), la Red Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Personas que Usan Drogas (LANPUD), la Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA), y el Consorcio Internacional de Política de Drogas (IDPC), una red global de más de 190 organizaciones, que trabajamos promoviendo políticas de drogas basadas en los derechos humanos, la seguridad humana, la inclusión social, el desarrollo y la salud pública.

Notamos con preocupación que la participación de la sociedad civil en escenarios hemisféricos y multilaterales, que tuvo un periodo de consolidación hace algunos años, se ha debilitado recientemente. Las circunstancias de la pandemia y la virtualidad, que requieren celebrar estas reuniones en modalidad virtual, podrían propiciar convocatorias más amplias, considerando que se eliminan las barreras de gastos de viaje, y en este sentido, alentamos a los Estados miembros a promover de manera más decidida la participación de la sociedad civil en estas instancias.

La pandemia y la crisis social y económica que vive la región como efecto del virus mismo, y de las medidas para contrarrestar el contagio, tienen también repercusiones en la vida de las personas involucradas con economías ilícitas y drogas. Por ejemplo, en los centros penitenciarios de la región, algunos con índices de hacinamiento de hasta el 200 por ciento, se requerían urgentes medidas de descongestión, así como priorizar a las poblaciones allí para su vacunación, hechos que no ocurrieron, con efectos devastadores para las personas privadas de la libertad. Las poblaciones rurales que dependen de economías ilícitas como única alternativa de subsistencia, quedaron aún más aisladas en medio de los confinamientos, y a merced del control de actores armados.

También resulta de suma importancia incorporar en la agenda medidas relacionadas con la respuesta al VIH en la región, tomando en cuenta que este año se discutió en Naciones Unidas la Declaración política sobre el VIH y el SIDA: acabar con las desigualdades y estar en condiciones de poner fin al sida para 2030. Esta declaración menciona la necesidad ampliar la cantidad y cobertura de los programas de reducción de daños y tratamiento para el consumo de sustancias, así como la necesidad de reformar leyes restrictivas que marginan y discriminan a las personas que usan drogas, como aquellas que penalizan la tenencia para consumo personal o el auto-cultivo. El estigma y la discriminación asociados son barreras para el acceso a dispositivos sanitarios y sociales.

Este año se celebran dos aniversarios amargos. Los 60 años de la Convención Única de Estupefacientes y los 50 años de la declaración de la guerra contra las drogas de Presidente Nixon. El tratado global, en sus enunciados fundamentales, buscaba proteger el bienestar de la humanidad, pero en este aniversario lo que las Américas han visto son 60 años de fortalecimiento de las redes del narcotráfico, con poder devastador en violencia y corrupción, a la par de efectos desalentadores en materia de derechos humanos, como es el encarcelamiento desproporcionado y masivo, los contagios evitables de enfermedades transmisibles, la crisis por falta de alivio de dolor, entre tantas otras tragedias de la prohibición. Por su parte, los 50 años de la guerra que declaró Nixon, transformaron y potenciaron conflictos armados internos y fortalecieron una mirada de estigmatización hacia personas que usan drogas, sin mejorar sus condiciones de vida y salud. En resumen, en estos aniversarios se conmemoran décadas de fracaso.

Pero este escenario hemisférico tiene mucho que aportar para asegurar que no se sigan repitiendo y reciclando fórmulas fallidas. La CICAD ya ha estado a la vanguardia de debates que las Américas pueden ofrecer para tomar lecciones aprendidas, definir principios rectores de mejores políticas de drogas, y orientar políticas basadas en la evidencia y en los compromisos comunes de los derechos humanos. Alentamos a los Estados Miembros a asumir liderazgo político y hemisférico que vuelva a poner sobre la mesa debates como el de alternativas al encarcelamiento, enfoque de desarrollo sostenible, y orientación de recursos hacia el desarrollo y la salud pública.

En el escenario internacional, la sociedad civil permanece comprometida, en la medida de sus posibilidades, con participar en instancias de decisión de la política de drogas, y asegurar que los compromisos globales frente a la UNGASS 2016, la Declaración Ministerial de Alto Nivel de 2019, y la Posición Común frente a las políticas de drogas de las Naciones Unidas, avancen con implementación efectiva a nivel regional y nacional. Más recientemente, se publicó elinforme del Grupo de Trabajo de Detenciones Arbitrarias, con énfasis en los impactos a los derechos humanos de detenciones arbitrarias asociadas a políticas de drogas. Desde la CICAD, y en colaboración con el Grupo de trabajo, se debería propiciar un espacio de socialización de los contenidos y recomendaciones del informe para los Estados Miembros.

Profundizar en los enfoques de derechos humanos, políticas basadas en la evidencia, y desarrollo sostenible, son ejes de las organizaciones que hoy represento, pero cuyos contenidos están lejos de la realidad cuando se insiste en medidas criminalizadoras en contra de personas que, por condiciones de vulnerabilidad socio-económicas, se involucran de alguna manera con las drogas ilícitas.

Reiteramos la disposición de las organizaciones que representó para seguir siendo interlocutoras críticas, pero también constructivas en pro de estos objetivos comunes.

Civil society statement to the 69th session of CICAD: Drug policy reform must be back on the agenda

Drugs like opium and cannabis have been used in cultures around the world for millennia. Drug regulation, on the otherhand, arrived when settlers and colonizers did—particularly in African and Asian countries.

“Criminalization is a colonial legacy,” Tripti Tandon, deputy director with the Lawyers Collective, told 

Lawyers Collective is one of the oldest human rights organizations in India. Tandon had just spoken on the impact of colonization on drug policy within the country during a May 26 panel hosted by Harm Reduction International, Release, Dejusticia, the International Drug Policy Consortium, the Transnational Institute, and Voices of Community Action & Leadership, Kenya. The panel, 

Decolonising Drug Policy: Dismantling Racism and Colonialism Through Drug Policy Reform

, was the first of a four-part series. Speakers from India, South Africa and Kenya shared their experiences.

“The American experiment in drug prohibition … really became one of the flagship foreign policies of the USA,” said Kojo Koram, a lecturer at the Birkbeck School of Law, during the panel. “[It] had the consequences of actually reproducing, and in some cases accelerating, the racial and geographical divisions within the world.” Koram’s research points to implementation of drug prohibition and penalization policies as a way to “civilize” Indigenous peoples.

Dejusticia

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