Comments to draft General Recommendation N. 37 on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health - IDPC submission to CERD

This submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination provides comments on the first draft of General Recommendation N. 37 on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health.

It provides evidence of the role of drug laws and policies as a driver of discriminatory policing and incarceration, and how this leads to the violation of the right to be free from racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health. We urge the Committee to recognise explicitly in the General Recommendation that contact with the criminal legal system is a social determinant of health, and that States have the obligation to reform criminal laws, policies, and practices with racially discriminatory outcomes - including drug-related laws, policies, and practices.