IDPC submission to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights’ report on UNGASS implementation and human rights

In accordance with the Human Rights Council’s Resolution 37/42,1 this contribution from IDPC aims to feed into the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the implementation of the UNGASS Outcome Document entitled ‘Our joint commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem’. This submission considers all relevant operational paragraphs (OP) within the Outcome Document and analyses their relationship with human rights, drawing from available data and experiences from the ground.

Note: 2020 correction

This submission initially stated that, according to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPJ), over 80% of all people in prison for a drug offence had been sentenced for drug possession. This should be corrected to reflect the accurate interpretation of the CCPJ’s findings, which is that 83% of all recorded drug offences are offences related to possession, with no reference to sentencing. According to more recent UN data from 2019, one in five people incarcerated worldwide are detained for a drug offence, of which 21.65% (or 470,000 people) were detained for drug use and drug possession only.