UN Report Urges Member States to Cease Criminalization of Drug Users

The UN Human Rights Commissioner has released a report advocating for decriminalizing drug possession, emphasizing policies rooted in human rights and public health instead of punitive measures. It urges others to follow the increasing number of countries shifting towards policies that treat drug use as a public health and human rights issue, away from the damaging “war on drugs” approach.

The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s report calls for the abandonment of criminal sanctions for drug possession in favor of policies grounded in human rights and public health. It is believed that excessive use of criminal sanctions is harmful.

UN Calls for Effective Drug Policies

The UN report urges countries to create effective drug strategies, including considering the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.

“If properly designed and implemented, decriminalization can be a powerful tool to ensure the protection of rights for those using drugs,” states the UN report.

“Drug laws, policies, and practices should not exacerbate human suffering. The drug issue remains deeply concerning, but treating drug users as criminals is not the solution,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Countries should move away from the current dominant orientation of prohibition, repression, and punishment, and instead adopt laws, policies, and practices rooted in human rights and focused on harm reduction.”

Impact of Current Policies According to UN

The UN Human Rights Office’s report, commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, indicates that the excessive use of criminal sanctions deters drug users from seeking help, leading to stigmatization and social exclusion.

According to the latest statistics from the UN 2023 World Drug Report, drug users are disproportionately exposed to blood-borne viruses; nearly 660,000 people die each year from drugs, and 10% of all new HIV infections worldwide in 2021 involved people taking drugs by injection.

The effects of these policies are profound and widespread, as emphasized by the report. The militarization of law enforcement in the “war on drugs” leads to serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions. Excessive use of criminal sanctions significantly contributes to prison overcrowding.

The UN report emphasizes that the effects of these policies are most acute for Africans, women, indigenous peoples, and youth from impoverished environments.

“Current anti-drug policies have the most significant impact on the poorest and most vulnerable individuals,” Türk noted.

Rise in Death Penalty

Globally, the UN has observed that there has been an increase in the use of the death penalty for drug-related convictions, which is inconsistent with international human rights standards. The number of people executed for drug-related crimes in 2022 was more than double that of 2021, accounting for 37% of all executions worldwide, as indicated by the report.

“The current excessive focus on compulsion and control in the fight against drugs leads to an increase in human rights violations, despite growing evidence that decades of criminalization and the so-called war on drugs neither protect people’s well-being nor deter drug-related crimes,” Türk said.

Positive Trends in Policy

The UN report shows that an increasing number of countries across all regions are adopting policies and practices that decriminalize drug use, treating it as a public health and human rights issue, employing evidence-based approaches, considering gender equality, and minimizing risk.

The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights called on UN member states to capitalize on this positive trend.

A group of UN representatives and human rights experts had previously, in June of the previous year, called for an end to the “global war on drugs.”

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(Featured image by Mathias Reding via Unsplash)

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