Podcast of launch of INCB Annual Report 2013 in London

Today, Tuesday 4th March 2014, the INCB Annual Report for 2013 was launched in London. Below is the podcast of the event.

During the event, Mr. Yans made a clear statement on the use of the death penalty for drugs offences:

About the death penalty… well I may have news for you. You should know, remember, that capital punishment is neither encouraged nor prohibited by the international drug control conventions, which don’t refer to death penalty under provisions related to penalties given the case of drug trafficking. The conventions just give some examples, such as imprisonment, other forms of deprivation of liberty, pecunary sanctions, confiscation for drug traffickings, or alternative measures to punishment for drug-related offences of minor nature. That’s the material which is in the conventions; the death penalty is not inside the conventions, it is not referred to inside the conventions. However under the global United Nations standards and norms in criminal justice, states are encouraged to avoid using the death penalty. I’m not talking here about drugs, I’m talking in general, it’s the general trend inside the United Nations system. INCB, taking into account the relevant international conventions on human rights, the various protocols, the various resolutions of the General Assembly, of the ECOSOC, and of UN human rights bodies concerning the death penalty, we encourage state parties, part of the conventions, that still provide for the death penalty for drug-related offences in their national legislation and practice it, to consider the abolishing of the death penalty for drug-related offences. So I read to you the text of the decision, so that it’s not my words, it’s the words of INCB or the Board in its February session.

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