La discriminación racial y el derecho a la salud - Contribución al Comité para la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial

El HRI, el IDPC y el CDPE arrojan luz sobre las repercusiones de las políticas punitivas en materia de drogas en las comunidades racializadas, incluso en relación con la vigilancia y la criminalización, y con el acceso limitado a los servicios sanitarios, de reducción de daños, de tratamiento y sociales. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Issues for consideration during the thematic discussion in preparation for a General Recommendation on article 5 (e)(iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
Racial discrimination and the right to health

Submitting organisations: Harm Reduction International (HRI), the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE)

HRI, IDPC, and CDPE welcome the opportunity to contribute on “issues for consideration during the thematic discussion in preparation for a General Recommendation on article 5 (e)(iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination”, particularly on the issue of racial discrimination and the right to health.

This submission focuses on the impact of drug control policies on the right to health of specific ethnic groups. The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent concluded that drug control is a “means of racial surveillance, rather than [as] a mechanism to curb the use and sale of narcotic drugs”, concluding that the racial impacts of punitive drug control are a historical legacy of colonialism. Indeed, the ‘colonization of drug control’ has been a means for states in Europe and America to advance and sustain the systematic exploitation of people of African descent, land and resources, which were established under colonial control and continue to dominate today.

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent also acknowledged that the “health risks associated with unregulated use of narcotics are largely ignored where they principally impact people of African descent, including in detention settings which are high-risk environments for HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis transmission. There is a lack of recognition that enduring racial disparities and race-based outcomes are related to policy priorities that are grounded in discrimination and negative racial stereotypes, including the targeting of minority communities of African origin rather than criminality.”