On average, 130 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Illicitly produced synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and its analogues are playing an increasing role in this crisis, with fatal overdoses attributed to such drugs soaring from less than 3,000 in 2012 to more than 28,000 in 2017.

The Trump administration has claimed that a crackdown on illicit Chinese manufacturing of fentanyl and construction of a “wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border will stem the flow of illegal drugs and save lives.

Responding to America's opioids crisis

At least 35 countries still retain the death penalty for drugs laws in law, a practice that violates international human rights standard. Despite a decline in executions for drug offences globally, some countries are pushing for expand or reimplement use of the death penalty for these offences.This event will launch Harm Reduction International's latest report on this issue and discuss how abolishing the death penalty for drug offemnces could serve as an entry point for broader abolition efforts.

The death penalty for drug offences: Between abolition and populism

: Vienna International Centre. Conference Room C-1

If you require an UN Vienna Ground Pass please register at info@cstfondrugs.org before 18 February.

Voices of Civil Society: Beyond 2019 - CSTF civil society hearing in Vienna

The 2nd CND Intersessional Meeting for the 62nd session will be held on 25 February (10:00 AM) in Board Room D (C Building).

2nd CND intersessional meeting

The Human Rights Council holds no fewer than three regular sessions a year, for a total of at least ten weeks. They take place in March (four weeks), June (three weeks) and September (three weeks).

If one third of the Member States requests so, the Human Rights Council can decide at any time to hold a special session to address human rights violations and emergencies.

UN Human Rights Council: 40th Regular session

: United Nations Headquarters. Conference Room 1.

If you require an UN New York Ground Pass please register at info@cstfondrugs.org before 15 February.

Voices of Civil Society: Beyond 2019 - CSTF civil society hearing in New York

Auditorium Pictet B
Maison de la Paix
Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2
1202 Geneva

Monday 28 January 2019
17h30 - 19h
Followed by a reception

In 2009, UN member states set 2019 as the target date for eradicating the illegal drug market. Next year, the international community will take stock of progress and delineate the global drug strategy for the next decade. In the absence of a formal review for the last 10 years of drug control, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) has produced a civil society shadow report, which assesses the progress made, or lack thereof, against the objectives of 2009. The analysis shows that the scale of drug cultivation, production, trafficking and use has increased exponentially over the past decade, and the negative impacts on human rights have been severe. This conference aims to encourage an exchange of ideas on policy and practice regarding drug control policies at the multilateral level and discuss how punitive drug policies impact the International Geneva mandates. The event will be available on live-stream here:

, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy

, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations Office at Geneva

, Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization

, Professor, International History, the Graduate Institute, Geneva

, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Consortium

, President of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation

, Chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy

This conference is organised in partnership with the Global Commission on Drug Policy and with the support of 

 and the International Drug Policy Consortium.

The lost decade in the global war on drugs

According to the Human Rights Council’s “institution-building package”, the Universal Periodic Review Working Group will hold three two-week sessions per year. During each session 16 countries will be reviewed, therefore 48 countries per year and 192 countries by 2011, or the entire UN membership over the course of the first UPR cycle (2008-2011). On 21 September 2007, the Human Rights Council adopted a calendar detailing the order in which the 192 UN Member States will be considered during the first four-year cycle. Each review is facilitated by groups of three States, or “troikas”, who act as rapporteurs.

Click here for more details regarding the timetable

Universal Periodic Review 32nd Session

: Global Drug Policy Program and Human Rights Initiative


Women’s incarceration around the world is growing at an astounding and disproportionate rate. Between 2000 and 2017, the total female prison population worldwide increased by 53 percent, while that of men increased by only 19 percent. Punitive drug laws are the driving force behind women’s imprisonment: most women are behind bars for minor, nonviolent drug offenses. These women typically have little or no schooling, live in poverty, and are mothers. They usually enter into the drug trade out of economic necessity or because it is a family business, and some are coerced by intimate partners or abusive family members.

Mass incarceration and overly punitive drug policies destroy women’s lives and thwart economic opportunities while harming their children, families, and communities. Moreover, these women—and affected communities more broadly—are largely ignored in policymaking circles. To confront these challenges, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and Equis Justicia para las Mujeres have been working together to raise the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women in Latin America through a variety of advocacy tools and activities.

What are the most recent trends regarding women’s incarceration in the Americas? What are the innovative strategies being launched to counter this phenomenon? And how are affected women coming together and organizing for reform? This event will explore these and other questions. A short video filmed in the women’s prison in Oaxaca, Mexico will also be shown.

A reception will follow the panel discussion.

Coletta Youngers is a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), where she has worked since 1987, and a senior associate with the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Ana Pecova is executive director of EQUIS Justicia para las Mujeres, a Mexican nonprofit organization that works to promote access to justice for women.

Andrea James is the founder and executive director of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, founder of Families for Justice as Healing, and author of 

Upper Bunkies Unite: And Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration

Kasia Malinowska (commentator), is director of the Global Drug Policy Program at the Open Society Foundations.

Soheila Comninos (moderator) is a program officer in the Open Society Foundations’ Human Rights Initiative.

Women in prison: The devastating impact of rising incarceration in the Americas

The 1st CND Intersessional Meeting for the 62nd session will be held on 16 January (10:00 AM) in Board Room D (C Building).

1. Preparations for the 62nd session of the CND

(a) Preparations for the ministerial level segment (14-15 March 2019)

(b) Preparations for the regular segment (18-22 March 2019)

2. Contributions to the Economic and Social Council

1st CND intersessional meeting

When: Thursday December 13th, from 5:00- 7:00 pm

Where: Salt 110, Paul Webley Building, Senate House, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG.

RSVP (by November 30th): Axel Klein, axelcklein@yahoo.co.uk Blaine Stothard, blaine@healthed.org.uk

The book describes the events, activities and negotiations leading up to the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on international drug policy. A range of respected authors from international institutions, academia and civil society organisations detail the background to the negotiations and the outcome; and possible future scenarios for continued reform and change at the High Level Review in 2019. The chapters include consideration of the positions taken by blocs and nation-states at all points on the prohibition-reform continuum.

Book launch: Collapse of the global order on drugs

This seminar will be based on research drawn from my recently published book ‘White drug cultures and regulation in London, 1916-1960’. It focuses on the 1930s, when a group composed of wealthy bohemian youth, formerly part of what the newspapers termed ‘The Bright Young People’, formed a network of morphine, heroin and cocaine use in Chelsea.

Past Events