During a visit to Switzerland, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov forged closer cooperation with the heads of organizations active in many of the major fields of work of the United Nations, including health; labour; human rights; humanitarian action and disaster relief; saving endangered species; and development. He also met officials of the Government of Switzerland, a major UNODC donor.

Geneva is the second largest United Nations duty station after United Nations Headquarters in New York and is acknowledged as the humanitarian capital of the world. Mr. Fedotov therefore visited intergovernmental organizations, specialized agencies, programmes, funds, offices, research institutes and related organizations with a view to bringing added value to their work and drawing upon their wide expertise.

Specifically, the Executive Director sought to draw attention to the importance of the fight against drugs and organized crime given that those phenomena impede development. By mainstreaming those issues in every sphere of activity, development agencies and peacekeeping operations could improve their chances of achieving long-term success and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals.

UNODC places human rights at the centre of drug control, crime prevention and criminal justice. Drug dependence is a health disorder, and drug abusers need treatment. The Office advocates a comprehensive package of measures to reduce vulnerability, treat drug addiction and prevent the spread of infections associated with drug abuse, such as HIV.

It helps to build fair and effective criminal justice systems by assisting States in reforming their national criminal justice systems, with particular emphasis on vulnerable groups such as women and children. The Office has developed projects in the areas of juvenile justice, penal reform and victim support. In order to reduce poverty, UNODC works with communities to provide farmers with legitimate and sustainable livelihoods so as to encourage them not to cultivate illicit crops. [...]

"In the spirit of 'One UN', let us cooperate to fight the illicit drugs and crime that undermine our work. Together, we can create safer and healthier societies", said Mr. Fedotov.

UNODC Executive Director committed to putting health, human rights and crime control at the centre of the work of the United Nations

The UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights released its ‘Concluding Observations’ on Russia’s implementation of one of the core UN human rights treaties – the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The treaty, agreed in 1966, sets out the clearest articulation of the right to health in international law and has been ratified by 160 UN member states.

In 2010 members of the Committee visited Russia to meet with people who use drugs who spoke about their experiences of Russian anti-harm reduction and anti-HIV prevention policies. The visit was co-ordinated by the Andrey Rylkov Foundation with the assistance of the UNODC, Moscow Office.

Noting its concerns about the “growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis in the Russian Federation”, the Committee went on to say that it “remains concerned about the continued ban on the medical use of methadone and buprenorphine for treatment of drug dependence and the fact that the Government does not support opioid substitution therapy (OST) and needle and syringe programs which are strongly recommended by WHO/UNAIDS, UNODC, and other international organizations, as effective measures for prevention of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users”

This concern was made in relation to article 12 of the Covenant – the right to health. It follows previous recommendations from this Committee relating harm reduction (Tajikistan 2006, Ukraine 2007, Poland 2009, Kazakhstan 2010, Mauritius 2010) but this is a first for two reasons:

First, the Committee deals with a ban on opioid substitution therapy and calls explicitly for law reform to rectify the situation, strongly recommending that Russia “provide clear legal grounds and other support for the internationally recognized measures for HIV prevention among injecting drug users, in particular the opioid substitution therapy (OST) with use of methadone and buprenorphine, as well as needle and syringe programs”

Second, the Committee recommends legal grounds and other support for "overdose prevention programs" as a requirement of the right to health. While overdose has been raised on rare occasions by other human rights monitors (e.g. the Committee on the Rights of the Child in relation to Norway in 2010) this is the first time is has been explicitly connected to the right to health under the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights so that people who use drugs “do not forfeit their basic right to health”.

In the past five years or so, there has been a building body of jurisprudence from this UN (quasi judicial) Committee on the normative content of article 12 of the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights as it relates to drug use and harm reduction. Read more.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

Russia, human rights and the building understanding of harm reduction and the right to health, an analysis by Harm Reduction International

The Global Commission on Drug policy aims to bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs to people and society. It is composed of a number of 

, including among others former president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria, former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine.

 Ban Ki Moon in New York, on 2 June. The event will be accompanied by a 

 led by Avaaz, which aims to gather 500,000 signatures for its new petition 'End the war on drugs!' by 2 June.

IDPC has been actively supportive of the work of the Global Commission since its inception.

Asma Jahangir - human rights activist, former UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions, Pakistan

Carlos Fuentes - writer and public intellectual, Mexico

César Gaviria - former President of Colombia

Ernesto Zedillo - former President of México

Fernando Henrique Cardoso - former President of Brazil (chair)

George Papandreou - Prime Minister of Greece

George Shultz - former Secretary of State, United States (honorary chair)

Javier Solana - former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Spain

John Whitehead - banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial, United States

Kofi Annan - former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ghana

Louise Arbour - former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, president of the International Crisis Group, Canada

Maria Cattaui - Member of the Board, Petroplus Holdings; former Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, Switzerland

Marion Caspers-Merk - former State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany

Mario Vargas Llosa - writer and public intellectual, Peru

Michel Kazatchkine - executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, France

Paul Volcker - former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and of the Economic Recovery Board, US

Richard Branson - entrepreneur, advocate for social causes, founder of the Virgin Group, cofounder of The Elders, United Kingdom

Ruth Dreifuss - former President of Switzerland and Minister of Home Affairs

Thorvald Stoltenberg - former Minister of Foreign Affairs and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Norway

Global Commission on Drug Policy to present concluding report to Ban Ki Moon

Ahead of a visit from Barack Obama, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has signed an amendment to his country's drug law.

The newly amended law, approved on Wednesday, May 25, is a small step forward in liberalizing Poland's drug policy. Overall, it aims to draw a greater distinction between drug user and drug dealer. For example, public prosecutors will now have the option of not bringing people to court on possession charges under three circumstances: if the quantity is small, if it is a first-time drug offense, or if the person has a drug dependency.

This change is largely thanks to ongoing advocacy by Polish and international civil society groups. The next steps will be to ensure that prosecutors are aware of these exceptions and that they are used, as experience from other countries shows that amendments often go unnoticed. Also, on the basis of the Czech Republic's experience, threshold quantities of illicit drugs should be drawn up with the aim of focusing a public debate on decriminalization.

Click here for more on changes to Poland's drug law.

Polish President approves new drug law

The head of the 2011 United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS, the Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use has issued a statement calling for Member States to focus on HIV transmission among people who inject drugs. The statement details eight key priorities for Member States as they negotiate the outcome document for June’s General Assembly meeting.

“Harm reduction is neither a matter of rhetoric, nor of politics. It is evidence-based and when implemented to scale, reduces HIV transmission among people who inject drugs,” says Bronwyn Myers, Reference Group Secretariat and Specialist Scientist at the Medical Research Council.

The statement issued by the Reference Group asks governments to commit to scaling-up evidence-based interventions to addressing HIV among people who inject drugs. It details a rights-based public health approach to achieving universal access, such as providing anti-retroviral treatment to people who are living with HIV, and it calls for countries to revise punitive drug and law enforcement policies that can undermine the AIDS response and human rights. “There is still a misconception that people who use drugs can not adhere to HIV treatment regimens, but research shows that they adhere well, especially if HIV treatment is offered in conjunction with drug treatment,” said Steffanie Strathdee, Associate Dean of Global Health at UC San Diego and a member of the Reference Group. “Denying drug users life-saving HIV treatments and drug treatment violates their right to health and harms the community, since it is now known that HIV treatment reduces viral load and can prevent HIV transmission,” Dr Strathdee said.

The Reference Group further underscored the importance of Member States’ ensuring access to the comprehensive package of nine interventions outlined in the WHO, UNODC, UNAIDS technical guide for the prevention and treatment of HIV among people who inject drugs. The need to engage people who inject drugs in the shaping of AIDS responses was also underline. It also highlighted that too many countries have little to no behavioural surveillance on people who inject drugs; even fewer of those who do, have no basic programmes such as needle syringe exchange programmes and opioid substitution therapy.

The statement is a call to the international community to renew its commitment to equitable access to HIV prevention, care and treatment among people who inject drugs and to recognize that injecting drug use is a global phenomenon which affects HIV transmission in both concentrated and generalized epidemic settings.

Reference Group to the UN on HIV and Injecting Drug Use

The Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use was established in 2002 to advise the UN on the epidemiology of HIV and HIV prevention among people who inject drugs. The Group comprises independent experts and its views and recommendations do not necessarily reflect the positions of the United Nations, the UNAIDS Secretariat or its Cosponsors.

News

UNODC Executive Director committed to putting health, human rights and crime control at the centre of the work of the United Nations

Russia, human rights and the building understanding of harm reduction and the right to health, an analysis by Harm Reduction International

Global Commission on Drug Policy to present concluding report to Ban Ki Moon

Polish President approves new drug law

Reference Group calls on UN Member States to scale-up interventions to address HIV among drug users