INCB to focus on women and drugs in the thematic chapter of its 2016 Annual Report

After two weeks of deliberations, the 27th of May 2016 saw the INCB concluding its 116th Session. During this period, the Board began work on its Annual Report for 2016. Among the most significant elements in the 2016 Report will be the thematic chapter, which will address the topic of women and drugs.

Current INCB President Werner Sipp stated that: ‘within drug control policy and practice there are very specific gender considerations, and the thematic chapter of our next Annual Report will be dedicated to precisely this topic – both drug use among women and the impact of drug use on women, but also the policy response of governments to the specific situations of women.’

The INCB focus represents a positive development, since UN drug control agencies have historically directed little attention to women’s involvement in the drug trade, the contexts that provoke it, and the specific impact of the drug control regime on the lives of women. Women are involved in the consumption, distribution and production of drugs in a variety of ways. In Central Asia, women who use drugs are discriminated against when seeking access to healthcare and are often victims of police abuse. In Latin America and some countries in South East Asia, women constitute the fastest growing prison population – and data shows that most of these women are incarcerated for minor drug offences, engaged in the drug trade to cope with a situation of high economic and social vulnerability.

Over recent years, there has been a growing concern with these areas at UN level, with a number of CND resolutions seeking to establish policies, principles and practices that respond to the needs of women. Resolution 59/5 “Mainstreaming a gender perspective in drug-related policies and programmes”, adopted at this year’s CND, no doubt included the strongest wording to date on gender and drugs issues.

Despite these positive developments, the impact of drug control interventions on women continue to receive negligible attention in the policies of many governments.

The author(s) of the thematic chapter is as yet unknown, though it is to be hoped that the focus will move from the harms caused primarily by drugs to those resulting from the international drug control framework itself.

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC Daniel Oines