The Ozone Foundation facilitates sustainable community-based delivery and expansion of health service access for people who use and inject drugs in Thailand towards an integrated national response to HIV and other health issues in which the human rights of everyone are protected and recognised.

La Fundación Ozone asegura la puesta en marcha de servicios comunitarios y la expansión de servicios de salud para las personas que utilizan e inyectan drogas en Tailandia, aspirando a una respuesta nacional integrada para el VIH y otras cuestiones de salud en la cual los derechos humanos de todos sean protegidos y respetados.

La Fondation Ozone facilite la prestation des programmes communautaires et l'expansion des services de santé pour les personnes qui consomment et injectent des drogues en Thaïlande, avec le but d'avancer vers une réponse nationale intégrée concernant le VIH et d'autres questions de santé qui respecte et protège les droits humains.

Ozone Foundation

Les changements politiques qui élargissent l'éventail des réponses de l'État aux personnes usagères des drogues ont facilité le travail des organisations dirigées par des pairs qui fournissent des services de santé et de réduction des risques. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

“I first started taking drugs when I was 15,” says 49-year-old Prapat Sukkeaw. “I smoked marijuana, but it was laced with heroin. I felt like I was floating, and it meant that I could forget about all the problems that I faced as a teenager. It was a beautiful feeling.”

Prapat Sukkeaw is one of an estimated 57,000 people who currently injects drugs in Thailand. His drugs of choice, marijuana and heroin, reflect a period in Thailand’s recent history when both illegal narcotics were the main stimulants being trafficked out of the storied Golden Triangle, a remote and somewhat inaccessible region which includes northern Thailand as well as Myanmar and Laos.

Employed by a non-governmental organization (NGO), he has on occasion wanted to give up heroin due to pressure from family and friends. Now, he has recognized that, even if he admits to being addicted, taking drugs “is my preference and my right”. He has now started taking the synthetic drug methamphetamine, as heroin has become progressively more expensive.

His focus has moved from abstaining from drugs to living with the side effects and managing the potential harm of their prolonged use, for example by not sharing needles.

Like all Thai citizens, Mr. Sukkeaw has access to universal health care, but he found that as a person who uses drugs, he was stigmatized and discriminated against by health care workers. He was referred to Ozone, an NGO based in a suburb of the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Ozone’s goal is to reduce the health and social impacts of drug addiction, promoting abstinence, but also supporting clients who want to carry on using and ensuring that they have access to the health services they require.

Thaïlande : Passer de la punition au traitement des personnes usagères des drogues

89 ONG soulignent la nécessité de s'attaquer aux impacts nocifs des politiques répressives en matière de drogues qui sapent les droits humains. Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

To: Ms Ghada Waly, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Subject: Open letter on UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day 2021

We urge you to mark International Human Rights Day 2021 by calling on Member States to change drug policies and practices that violate human rights and perpetuate inequality and discrimination.

We are writing to you ahead of International Human Rights Day 2021, which will take place on the 10th December amidst escalating global demands for the reform of laws and practices that entrench racial discrimination and social inequality, including drug policies. Last year, IDPC – together with dozens of other civil society and community organisations – called on you to issue a statement on International Human Rights Day urging Member States to change drug laws and practices that undermine health and human rights. A year later, we ask you to seize this day as an opportunity to show UNODC´s alignment with other UN entities in calling for an end to drug policies and practices that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, and violate human rights.

For decades, punitive drug policies have driven widespread human rights abuses, as has been amply documented by the UN. These include the death penalty for drug offences; extrajudicial killings; arbitrary detention, often masquerading as ‘rehabilitation’; the denial of access to life-saving harm reduction services; widespread barriers to accessing controlled medicines for pain relief; the criminalisation of people who use drugs, subsistence farmers and others groups in situations of vulnerability; corporal punishment; and mass incarceration. In all of these cases, draconian drug policies have disproportionately affected people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, thus entrenching inequality and discrimination.

Along 2021, a broad range of UN entities called on Member States to reform drug policies with discriminatory outcomes. In June 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a landmark study on arbitrary detention and drug polices, which found that ´

the war on drugs may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people. Its impact is often greatest on those who are poor, but also frequently overlaps with discrimination in law enforcement directed at vulnerable groups

´. At the same time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a new ‘Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality´, highlighting that ´

The discriminatory application of criminal law must be tackled at every stage, including by reforming drug-related policies

´. The High Commissioner´s proposal led to Human Rights Council Resolution 47/21, which contains key commitments to uproot systemic racism in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, adopted in June 2021, also showcased the international community´s commitment to ending inequalities as a step towards ending AIDS. Lastly, the new UN system Common Position on Incarceration, led by UNODC in partnership with other UN entities, notes ‘

the overrepresentation of minority and marginalized groups among prisoners, many of whom are charged with petty and nonviolent offences

support reform efforts aimed at ensuring proportionate and individualized sentencing and alternatives to conviction or punishment in appropriate cases, including for minor drug-related offences

These various commitments emerging across the United Nations are aligned with the 2018 Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drug-related matters, which makes clear that ‘

should be designed and implemented by States in accordance with their human rights obligations

’, and commits all UN agencies, including UNODC, to support drug policies ‘

that put people, health, and human rights at the centre

Similar human rights concerns have been highlighted in the just-released Global Drug Policy Index, which measures and ranks the national drug policies of 30 countries according to how well they align with the UN system Common Position on Drugs and its Task Team report of March 2019.

The theme of the 2021 International Human Rights Day is ‘Equality: Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights’, and is aimed at ´

addressing and finding solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in societies

´. As such, it presents a crucial opportunity for UNODC to align itself with other UN entities in calling for the end of policies that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, while highlighting its commitment to the promotion of human rights, in line with the UN system Common Positions.

It is in this context that we urge you to issue a strong statement on International Human Rights Day, calling on states to change the drug laws, policies and practices that violate health and human rights, and entrench inequality. To be credible, such a statement should explicitly acknowledge the disproportionate impact of drug laws and drug control on people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, and urge Member States to:

Abolish the death penalty in all circumstances. Imposing capital punishment for drug offences has been found to be contrary to international human rights law by the Human Rights Committee, and the Human Rights Council.

Put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings committed in the name of drug control, as has been repeatedly called for by the Human Rights Council and UN human rights experts.

Permanently close compulsory drug detention centres, including those that masquerade as ‘rehabilitation’, and implement voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services, as recently called for by sixteen UN agencies, including UNODC.

Stress the urgent need to provide accessible, affordable, and adequately funded harm reduction services in community and closed settings, to fulfil the right to health and the right to life of people who use drugs, as demanded by several UN human rights bodies and experts. This is also central to UNODC’s core role as lead UNAIDS co-sponsor regarding prisons and HIV amongst people who use drugs.

Take immediate measures to address prison overcrowding, as already recommended by UNODC and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting alternatives to incarceration, and ensuring proportionate sentencing for all drug offences, including by taking into account mitigating factors – in line with the basic principle that prisons should only be used as a last resort in all circumstances.

Ensure that people who use drugs are not subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment – whether in state custody or public or private drug services. While under detention, people with a drug dependence or health problems associated with their drug use must be offered evidence-based treatment, harm reduction and other drug services on a strictly voluntary basis.

Promote the end of all punishment for drug use, and drug possession and cultivation for personal use, as permitted within the three drug control conventions. Such policy shifts will help to end the stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion faced by people who use drugs, and to facilitate access to health and social services, as called for by the UN system Common Position, UNAIDS, and UN human rights bodies.

Make sure that drug policies incorporate a gender-sensitive perspective. This should be done by tailoring drug services to the specific needs of women, and by ensuring that criminal laws take into account the circumstances of women involved in drug offences, as most of them come from backgrounds of poverty, marginalisation, and oppression.

Clearly outline the ways in which UNODC will work to achieve these changes, and the measures being taken to ensure that human rights are effectively embedded as a core strand for all of the Office’s work.

As the lead UN agency in drug-related matters, UNODC has the responsibility to promote drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in a way that is consistent with the standards developed by the UN system, and in line with the commitments set in the UN system Common Positions on drugs and on incarceration. A strong statement in the forthcoming International Human Rights Day would be an important and welcome step to signal UNODC’s unequivocal commitment.

We look forward to discussing these concerns and recommendations with you.

Les ONG exhortent la Directrice exécutive de l'ONUDC à marquer la Journée des droits humains par un appel à la réforme des politiques en matière de drogues qui perpétuent les inégalités

Cet article offre des recommandations pour surmonter les difficultés à la lumière des politiques et pratiques actuelles en Thaïlande, de manière à ce que le système de traitement de la dépendance aux drogues puisse aboutir à une amélioration des résultats en matière de santé et de droits humains pour les usagers de drogues et les personnes dépendantes aux drogues. Pour en savoir plus, en Anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

By Pascal Tanguay (LEAHN — Law Enforcement and HIV Network) and Verapun Ngamee (Ozone Foundation)

In 2016, the Kingdom of Thailand formally decided to re-allocate responsibility for drug dependence treatment from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) by the end of 2018. The reforms are designed to increase voluntary access to client-centred drug dependence treatment where the MOPH will be expected to develop guidelines, operati ng standards and monitoring and evaluati on indicators to assess performance. Although Thailand’s drug treatment system has raised significant concerns over the past 15 years, this change is intended by the Government to indicate a shift in the overall approach to drug use and dependence to one based on health and human rights.

For the transition from public security to public health management of drug dependence treatment to generate positive results, the MOPH will require significant support to ensure adequate capacity to deliver drug treatment services that accord with scientific and international standards. Challenges to an effective transition lie in two key areas:

1. The objectives and guiding principles for a national drug treatment system based on principles of health and human rights are yet to be established, and need to be improved and aligned with international guidelines and good practices in order to generate better health outcomes for people who are dependent on drugs.

2. Diversion of people caught using drugs to drug treatment will still be managed and coordinated under the 2002 Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act, which retains punitive and coercive elements such as forced urine testing by law enforcement officers.

This paper offers a brief analysis of these two challenges in light of current policies and practices, along with recommendations for overcoming them to ensure the implementation of a drug treatment system that can result in improved health and human rights outcomes for people who use drugs and people dependant on drugs.

Ozone Foundation

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Thaïlande : Passer de la punition au traitement des personnes usagères des drogues

Les ONG exhortent la Directrice exécutive de l'ONUDC à marquer la Journée des droits humains par un appel à la réforme des politiques en matière de drogues qui perpétuent les inégalités

Traitement de la dépendance aux drogues en Thaïlande : Progrès par rapport aux préoccupations persistantes