In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses: torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, denial of essential medicines and basic health services.
The Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy issued on June 2, 2011 argues that the global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world and vast expenditures on criminalization and repressive measures directed at producers, traffickers and consumers of illegal drugs.
Overdose is a major and often overlooked cause of death among people who inject heroin or other opioids. Yet there is a safe and effective treatment: the medication naloxone.
After 10 years of zero-tolerance, the Polish Parliament has decided to reform the drug law. In April 2011 it amended the drug law in order to give discretion to prosecutors in deciding whether to prosecute small scale drug offenders. The new law now awaits to be signed by the President.
Harm Reduction at Work is a practical, hands-on guide written by Raffi Balian and Cheryl White, whose many years of experience in harm reduction, drug user activism, and organizational leadership have made them experts on working with people who use drugs.
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) has created 4 short video messages to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. In the videos a Taliban leader, a Mexican drug lord, a Russian mafioso and the girlfiend of an American drug kingpin thank the UN for keeping drugs illegal. These videos are part of the HCLU’s campaign to raise awareness on the unintended consequences of the global war on drugs. In addition to that HCLU team filmed the Drug Lords in Vienna who came there to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
“Drug policies and harm reduction in South East Europe” is a briefing paper by IDPC. This is the first of a series focusing on drug-related issues in SEE. It provides an overview of the current situation regarding harm reduction services and national drug policies in the region.
In the age of economical crisis there is a risk that European cities might sacrifice their unquestionable achievements in the field of drug policy and harm reduction. Pavel Bem, the mayor of Prague and a former drug treatment professional himself, recognized this current trend and the need to create a new platform to promote evidence-based, pragmatic drug policies among cities.
In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses: torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, denial of essential medicines and basic health services.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2010
To mark World AIDS Day 2010, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) released a report highlighting the failures of governments and donors to effectively tackle HIV and injecting drug use, and the urgency with which a human-rights based, effective response is needed.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation launched its guide to the legal regulation of drugs 'After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation' on November 12, 2009. The guide proposes specific models of regulation for each main type and preparation of prohibited drug, coupled with the principles and rationale for doing so. Further, the book demonstrates that moving to the legal regulation of drugs is not an unthinkable, politically impossible step in the dark, but a sensible, pragmatic approach to control drug production, supply and use. Now guide is available in Russian language.
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , 2010
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, Anand Grover, on October 25, 2010 presented his Annual Thematic Report.
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) has launched a film dedicated to International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2010. The film “Take Home Naloxone - The Right to Survive Overdoses” highlights the fact that deaths due to overdose are preventable using cheap and effective methods that do not stigmatize or criminalize people who use drugs. HCLU team hopes this movie will convince and mobilize professionals, activists and politicians to get rid of the prejudices and remove the barriers from Naloxone distribution.
Drug Policy Guide to national policy makers by International Drug Policy Consortium is now available in Russian. The Guide aims to provide regional and national partners with a resource that they can use to conduct reviews of the national drug policies and programs in their areas, and engage with policy makers to work towards policy and program improvement.
"Detention as Treatment: Detention of Methamphetamine Users in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand" – report by OSI documents the arbitrary detention of thousands of drug users, mostly young people, in controversial detention centers in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. The report calls on the United Nations and donor countries to immediately cease any financial support for maintaining or building new detention centers. It further calls on the governments of Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand to release those currently detained, and devise strategies to permanently close drug detention centers.
International Network of People who Use Drugs, 2010
From its inception in 2007, International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) successfully engaged in international advocacy and the voices of people who use drugs were heard for the first time in a number of key international and regional development forums.
The Global Fund Secretariat is in the process of developing the ‘IDU Initiative’ which explores and recommends ways to create demand at a country level for programming and evidence-based interventions for injecting drug users.
WHO guidelines on OST review the use of medicines such as methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone and clonidine in combination with psychosocial support in the treatment of people dependent on heroin or other opioids.
The global trade in illegal drugs is a vast enterprise, estimated at more than 300 billion USD a year, with the United States as the largest single retail market.
An AIDS-free generation is not impossible. Yet the world is not on track to meet targets for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and the global economic crisis raises concerns about sustaining and expanding assistance.
All the authors of this book have been working in harm reduction for the past ten years and have observed various developments on the drug scene, but as long as ignorance and fear of the unknown persist, we all will have work to do. In order to understand how deeply rooted prejudice is in society, we can look at statements like "marijuana is a springboard to heroin, and heroin users are incurable and live a maximum of five years" – which are often pronounced publicly by politicians, reported in the media, and expressed by medical doctors, sociologists, teachers, and others.
Once drug users realize that no one but themselves can solve these problems, once we begin to see other people around us facing the same problems, then and only then the problems may be solved. The battle has just started and victory is far away, but the first steps have been taken, and the effort will not be wasted.
The United Nations and Drug Policy: Towards a Human Rights-Based Approach is newly published paper that considers some of the normative, legal, policy and institutional challenges posed by international human rights law to the UN drug control system. It is co-authored by Damon Barrett from IHRA and Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) produced 70 advocacy videos in 2009; 26 were Hungarian and 44 were in a foreign language. The vast majority of films deal with drug policy issues, within the framework of the European Drug policy Initiative program.
UNODC and WHO have released a policy briefing and technical paper on ‘HIV Testing and Counselling in Prisons and Other Closed Settings’. The document aims to ensure that incarcerated people are not forgotten by countries during efforts to scale-up overall access to HIV testing and counselling.
The submission to the Human Rights Council: Review of Kyrgyz Republic describes several key human rights priorities and provides recommendations for the Kyrgyz Republic to better respect, protect and fulfil human rights, consistent with its international legal obligations, in areas of particular relevance to effective response to HIV.
Latin American Initiative on Drugs and Democracy, 2009
Publication ‘Legislative Innovation in Drug Policy’ by Martin Jelsma (Transnational Institute) summarizes good practices in legislative reforms around the world, representing steps away from a repressive zero-tolerance model towards a more evidence-based and humane drug policy.
Restrictions on stay and residence based on HIV status not only deny equal freedom of movement to HIV-positive people, they also affect their health, development and other human rights. 'Denying Entry, Stay and Residence due to HIV Status' advocates for non-discrimination in the freedom of movement of people living with HIV and provides tips how to help eliminate HIV-related restrictions on entry.
On August 25, 2009, Argentina’s Supreme Court of Justice unanimously declared to be unconstitutional the second paragraph of Article 14 of the country’s drug control legislation (Law Number 23,737), which punishes the possession of drugs for personal consumption with prison sentences ranging from one month to two years (although education or treatment measures can be substitute penalties).
Theonline resource guide ‘Health and Human Rights’ for practitioners and advocates covers the basic concepts and resources in health and human rights, and provides information on international treaties and enforcement mechanisms that can be applied.
This is a publication on access to hepatitis treatment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia prepared by Open Society Institute's Access to Essential Medicines Initiative. Awareness regarding HCV is largely nonexistent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, even among most IDUs. That stems at least in part from a lack of access to most aspects of HCV-related care, from diagnostics to treatment to managing side effects. The high cost of treatment is a key factor. The aim of the publication is to raise awareness on HCV and promote advocacy among patients, civil society groups, government officials, multilateral organizations and funding mechanisms, and the pharmaceutical industry.
The Task Team affirmed that HIV-specific restrictions on entry, stay and residence based on HIV status are discriminatory, do not protect the public health and are overly broad in terms of rationally identifying those whose entry or stay might result in an undue burden on public monies. According to the Task Team, such restrictions have always been ineffective but have become even more inappropriate in the age of globalization, increased travel, treatment for HIV, and national and international commitments to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support and the protection of the human rights of people living with HIV.
Produced by the Open Society Institute, International Drug Policy: Animated Report 2009 highlights some of the disastrous effects of drug policy in recent years and proposes solutions for a way forward. This film seeks to show that pursuing a "drug-free world" can lead to more harm than good.
The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) researched the progress in 4 countries of Eastern Europe all of which have experienced a major increase in drug related problems. While Lithuania, Georgia and Ukraine have improved access to modern drug dependency treatment, Russia continues to ban low-cost, effective drug treatment options like opioid substitution therapy. Report calls for a more balanced approach to drug policy with investment in public health and human rights equal to the investment that is made in reducing the supply of drugs.
The report ‘The Incarceration of Drug Offenders’ published by the Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, provides an overview of some of the available incarceration data from around the world and brings together much contemporary research on the topic.
The report ‘Drug decriminalization in Portugal: lessons for creating fair and successful drug policies’ presented by Dr. Greenwald and the Cato Institute provides convincing evidence, that decriminalising drugs helps drug users and society in practice.
Country Coordination Mechanisms (CCMs) are only now beginning to focus on their role in overseeing the implementation of Global Fund grants. This guide describes what grant oversight is, and provides basic advice on how a CCM can plan and implement oversight. It includes some real-life examples from CCMs that have already started to do oversight. The primary target audience for this guide is CCMs. The guide will also be of interest to principal recipients (PRs) and large sub-recipients (SRs), as well as other stakeholders who are not on the CCM but who have an interest in the functioning of the CCM.
Altough harm reduction was not mentioned in the Political Declaration adopted by the high level UN meeting on drugs (March 11-12, 2009), 26 countries supported a statement made by Germany that interpreted the term “related support services” (a euphemism substituting harm reduction in the text) as harm reduction services. Other governments, like the US, Japan and Russia opposed this interpretation. A new video on this issue is available now at the website of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.
A Report on Global Illicit Drugs Markets 1998-2007, commissioned by the European Commission, found no evidence that the global drug problem has been reduced during the period from 1998 to 2007 – the primary target of the 1998 UNGASS, aimed to significantly reduce the global illicit drugs problem by 2008 through international cooperation and measures in the field of drug supply and drug demand reduction.
The purpose of this report is to provide information to Global Fund applicants on key attributes of a strong proposal. The report is based on an analysis of the strengths of all approved Round 8 proposals, as identified by the Technical Review Panel (TRP) when it reviewed the proposals.
Human Rights Watch and the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) prepared this overview to assist country delegations during key debates at the UN High Level Meeting on drugs in March 2009 by showing the extent of support from international agencies and experts for human rights-based approaches to drug policy.
The guidebook is written by veteran activist Karyn Kaplan and it’s aim is to help activists recognize human rights abuses that are systematically conducted and condoned by state and non-state actors and silently suffered by people who use drugs. The guidebook provides activists with the tools necessary to develop a human rights advocacy plan, particularly by documenting abuses against people who use drugs.
A decade after governments worldwide pledged to achieve a "drug-free world," there is little evidence that the supply of or demand for illicit drugs has decreased. Instead, aggressive drug control policies have led to widespread human rights violations and fueled epidemics of HIV and AIDS among people who use drugs.
The new book At What Cost? HIV and Human Rights Consequences of the Global War on Drugs examines the descent of the global “war on drugs” into a war on people who use drugs. After reading the stories in this volume of drug users beaten and strip-searched in public streets, forced to confess to criminal acts while undergoing painful and unmedicated withdrawal, and incarcerated without trial in prisons with high HIV infection rates, the question is no longer whether a drug-free world is possible – it is whether governments will be held accountable for violating human rights in their efforts to achieve it.
In January 2009, IHRA’s HR2 programme released a report entitled ‘Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Response to Drug-Related HIV Epidemics’. This report provides a concise overview of the global situation in terms of drug-related HIV epidemics worldwide, with a particular focus on the regions of Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub Saharan Africa.
The report also examines harm reduction within the context of international human rights law, addressing issues such as the right to health, abusive law enforcement practices and their effect on access to HIV prevention efforts and discrimination faced by people who use drugs in accessing HIV anti retroviral therapy.
International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) prepared an overview of multi-lateral endorsement of harm reduction policy and practice. “International Support for Harm Reduction” is a useful manual for those engaged in advocacy work around harm reduction, drug policy, and the human rights of people who use drugs.
The document provides UN legal and policy statements on harm reduction, international reviews of evidence and overall global state of harm reduction in a list of countries supporting harm reduction in policy and/or practice.
The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch (HRW) staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.
In the report you can find information on condition of human rights in countries that belong to our region. Report highlights the situation in Eastern Europe: while Russia has made considerable progress expanding access to antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV - it still refuses to make methadone maintenance therapy available to drug-dependent people. Moreover, in Ukraine human rights abuses fuel the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Ukrainian NGOs report continuing police interference with the delivery of HIV prevention services and drug users are frequently discriminated against receiving antiretroviral treatment.
World Health Organization (WHO)
Treated with Cruelty: Abuses in the Name of Rehabilitation
Treatment or Torture? Applying International Human Rights Standards to Drug Detention Centers
Human Rights and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Harm Reduction at Work 
In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses: torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, denial of essential medicines and basic health services.
To mark World AIDS Day 2010, the 
Transform Drug Policy Foundation
"Detention as Treatment: Detention of Methamphetamine Users in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand"
