UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities releases landmark observations urging Canada to embrace safe supply and end coercive drug treatment

UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Releases Landmark Observations Urging Canada to Embrace Safe Supply and End Coercive Drug Treatment

This past April, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Committee) called on Canada to support safe supply programs, marking the first time that a UN human rights treaty body explicitly called on a State Party to do so.

The Concluding Observations of the Committee, shared on April 15, 2025, address Canada’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Convention) and highlight a range of concerns with Canada’s current drug laws and policies, particularly those which impact the liberty and security of persons with disabilities.

The Committee’s explicit endorsement of harm reduction and safe supply programs which respond to the intersecting identities of people who use drugs comes at a moment when key harm reduction programs, including supervised consumption services, needle and syringe programs, and safe supply programs in Canada are under attack from all levels of government. This recommendation by a UN human rights body — which explicitly situates harm reduction and safe supply programs within a broader continuum of voluntary, rights-based care — is critical.

The report also expressed concern with calls for involuntary detention and treatment in Canada, and identified specific practices such as the continued use of drug treatment courts and the rise in involuntary hospitalization. These concerns were also raised by the HIV Legal Network in a 2025 shadow report to the Committee, pointing to troubling developments in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick that further authorize involuntary care and detention of people who use drugs.

The Committee noted that Canada’s legal and policy frameworks allowing for involuntary detention and treatment of people who use drugs raise serious concerns under Article 14 of the Convention, that protects the right to liberty and security of the person. As such, the Committee unequivocally called for the repeal of all such federal, provincial, and territorial mental health and substance-use treatment laws and policies — confirming again that such approaches are clear violations of international human rights law, as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, among others, have recognized.

The Committee further expressed concern about over-policing and its adverse impacts on Indigenous, Black, and racialized people, persons with disabilities in situations of homelessness, and persons with psychosocial disabilities. This has led to their frequent contact with the criminal legal system, incarceration, and the overrepresentation of persons with disabilities in prisons, which lack culturally appropriate, gender-sensitive health services, including mental health and drug treatment options.

To rectify rights violations, the Committee recommended investments in rights-based, culturally appropriate, voluntary community-based mental health and substance-use supports and treatment options that include peer-led options, as well as the implementation of laws and policies enabling access among prisoners with disabilities to culturally appropriate and gender-sensitive mental health and drug treatment options. Crucially, the Committee stressed the need for regulatory oversight and human rights monitoring to ensure that these supports genuinely uphold the autonomy of the diverse peoples accessing them.

At the same time, the Committee called on Canada to take all measures to address the overrepresentation of persons with disabilities in the criminal legal system and prisons, including by addressing the social determinants of incarceration, such as poverty, ableism, racial injustice and gender inequality. Throughout the Observations, the Committee was clear that all proposed recommendations must be developed and implemented in close consultation with, and active involvement of, persons with disabilities.

The Committee’s decisive rejection of forced treatment approaches, calls for meaningful investments in voluntary, rights-based alternatives, and embrace of harm reduction and safe supply programs underscore the urgent need for Canada to realign its drug policies with its obligations under the Convention. Grounded in the principles of liberty, autonomy, and the active participation of persons with disabilities, the Committee has provided a vital roadmap for Canada to preserve and scale up essential components of a rights-respecting approach that is responsive to the diverse identities of people who use drugs.

By centering their voices, Canada can do better and uphold the human rights of all.

Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Bhargavi Munshi, and Anne-Rachelle Boulanger