Reforming drug laws to address racial injustice - Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

The submitting organisations are grateful to provide this shadow report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as part of their examination of the state racial disparity within the context of drug policy and its enforcement within England and Wales.

This submission focuses on and provides evidence of the role of drug laws and policies as drivers of discriminatory policing and incarceration, exploring how this leads to violations of human rights, including the rights to liberty and to be free from racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health. As recently noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, contact with the criminal legal system is a social determinant of health, and therefore states have the obligation to reform criminal laws, policies, and practices with racially discriminatory outcomes - including drug-related laws, policies, and practices. Drug law enforcement disproportionately targets racialised communities, including people of African and Asian descent. This report focuses on the discriminatory application of drug law enforcement in England and Wales for children and adults alike, highlighting not only the experiences of those who are brought into contact with the criminal legal system but also how discriminatory practices are playing out within educational and health settings. Research indicates that decriminalisation of use, possession, cultivation and acquisition of drugs for personal use can reduce contact between police and Black communities.

We urge the Committee to reiterate the call for the decriminalisation of the use, possession, cultivation and acquisition of drugs for personal use, as has been done by multiple human rights mechanisms, including the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), the Special Rapporteur on Health alongside 20 additional Special Procedure Mandates, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and in line with the broader position of the Chief Executives Board of the United Nations.

This report will address issues pertaining to the disproportionate impact of punitive drug policy on Black communities, including over-policing, inequitable criminal justice outcomes, the conflation between drug trafficking and exploitation of children, health inequalities experienced by Black and minority communities accessing drug treatment and housing, and recommendations. Our recommendations include proposals addressing the inherently racist nature of punitive drug policies through full decriminalisation, decarceration, divestment and redirection of resources away from policing and towards health and social support.