Summer school: The promotion and protection of human rights in the era of drug reform

By International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy

After the UNGASS: Human rights in the era of drug reform

*Early enrolment discounts available now*

University of Essex summer school, 4-5 July 2016

Drug control is a neglected and under-researched human rights theme despite the scale of human rights abuses occurring in its name each year. The relationship between international human rights law and international drug control law is therefore a significant issue for human rights activists and scholars, yet to date it has largely gone unaddressed. In recent years, advocates have begun to use the tools provided by international human rights law as means to close this gap. However, the current scope of work addressing human rights and drug policy remains too narrow to shift the paradigm of international drug control away from its current punitive approach and towards one grounded in human rights.

The Essex Summer School on Human Rights and Drug Policy, organised by the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, provides the core legal foundations of human rights and drug control, presents tools to undertake research, introduces the political landscape of policy reform and provides an in-depth discussion on some of the most crucial human rights issues emerging at the dawn of this new era of drug reform.

Topics will include overviews of legal, historical and political foundations of drug control; a child rights framework for drug control; coercion, incarceration and the role of non-State actors; global perspectives on drug reform and sustainable development, with a focus on power asymmetries, inequality and poverty; engaging and understanding UN institutional arrangements and challenges for human rights and drug policy. It is an essential course for postgraduate students interested in emerging human rights themes, academics, human rights professionals, and officials from public health institutions, government and international organisations.

The teaching team will include some of the leading practitioners advancing human rights scholarship and advocacy within the framework of drug reform. More details will follow, but confirmed lecturers include:

• Dr Rick Lines, Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; Executive Director, Harm Reduction International; Chair, International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy
• Damon Barrett, Visiting Fellow, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex and Co-Founder/Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy; Stockholm University
• Julie Hannah, Human Rights Centre and Co-Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, University of Essex
• Rodrigo Uprimny, Co-Founder and Researcher, Dejusticia; Independent Expert, UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
• Professor Dave Bewley-Taylor, Director of the Global Drug Policy Observatory, Swansea University
• Denise Tomasini-Joshi, Deputy Director, International Harm Reduction Development Programme
• Eric Gutierrez, Senior Advisor, Accountable Governance; Christian Aid

Spaces are limited and early enrolment discounts are available now. For application details, please click here.

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