International Drug Policy Consortium, Amnesty International, Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Drug Policy Alliance, Harm Reduction International, Release. (2023) Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Comments to draft General Recommendation N. 37 on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health. London: Release.
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Introduction:
- The submitting organisations welcome the opportunity to provide comments on the first draft of General Recommendation N. 37 on racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health.
- Drug policy is a central element of public health. In the words of the UN special rapporteur on the right to health, access to harm reduction and other evidence-based health responses to drug use is ‘essential for the protection of the right to health of people who use drugs.’ Drug policies have been justified for decades as a means to protect ´the health and welfare’ of humankind. However, there is now undeniable evidence that the enforcement of punitive drug laws and policies has been a tool of racial discrimination in the criminal legal system, and that this has had a discriminatory impact on the enjoyment of physical and mental health of people of African descent, Indigenous peoples, and other ethnic minorities.
- This submission provides evidence of the role of drug laws and policies as a driver of discriminatory policing and incarceration, and of 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.
Item Type
Report
Publication Type
International, Report
Drug Type
Substances (not alcohol/tobacco)
Intervention Type
Harm reduction, Policy
Date
August 2023
Pages
7 p.
Publisher
Release
Corporate Creators
International Drug Policy Consortium, Amnesty International, Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Drug Policy Alliance, Harm Reduction International, Release
Place of Publication
London
EndNote
Related (external) link
Subjects
MA-ML Social science, culture and community > Sociocultural discrimination > Minority group (racial / ethnic group, immigrant, Traveller)
MM-MO Crime and law > Legal rights > Civil / human rights
MM-MO Crime and law > Legal rights > Rights of persons who use substances (users)
MM-MO Crime and law > Substance use laws > Drug laws
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use > Supply reduction policy
VA Geographic area > International
MM-MO Crime and law > Legal rights > Civil / human rights
MM-MO Crime and law > Legal rights > Rights of persons who use substances (users)
MM-MO Crime and law > Substance use laws > Drug laws
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use > Supply reduction policy
VA Geographic area > International
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