At its 47th regular session in May 2010, the OAS’s Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission adopted a new hemispheric drug strategy, replacing the last one adopted in 1996. Despite much skepticism as to what would be the final result, the strategy is in fact a significant step forward.
The CORRELATION Network will organise a number of thematic seminars in the second half of 2010. Each seminar will provide profound insights in the specific topic and includes a policy dialogue session with relevant policy makers.
In its Concluding Observations on Colombia, Mauritius and Kazakhstan, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released its most progressive statements so far on harm reduction and alternative development.
The International Doctors for Healthy Drug Policies (IDHDP)'s purpose is to increase the participation of medical doctors in drug policy reform. IDHDP lobbies internationally to promote harm reduction and healthy drug policies.
The 63rd World Health Assembly adopted a series of resolutions on a variety of global health issues, including a resolution on World Hepatitis Day. This resolution calls for WHO to develop a comprehensive approach to the prevention and control of hepatitis.
On May 22nd, Aksion Plus opened another methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) centre in the city of Elbasan, Albania, which is expected to provide services to around 80 clients.
On Friday, May 14, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) received a death threat allegedly from the Colombian paramilitary group The Black Eagles directed at over 80 Colombian human rights, Afro-Colombian, Indigenous, internally displaced and labor rights organisations and individuals. The threat states “as so called human rights defenders don’t think you can hide behind the offices of the Inspector General or other institutions... we are watching you and you can consider yourselves dead.”
Presentations from the conference “The art of the possible: advancing drug policy reforms in Latin America”, hosted by TNI, WOLA and the George Washington University on May 6th 2010, are now available online.
Several UN agencies and other groups have recently issued statements opposing drug detention centres and calling for their closure. In response to a letter from Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe called for the “earliest possible closure of detention centres.” The World Health Organization also sent its own letter reiterating the UNAIDS stance.
Whether it's Afghanistan or Colombia, drug-producing countries face strikingly similar challenges: severe control policies push communities deeper into poverty, worsen conflicts, cause rights violations, uproot people, and damage the environment. Harm reduction strategies are cheap, effective and easy to implement. Yet rarely have they been implemented by countries producing illicit crops.
On May 11th, the first edition of “Drug policy, HIV and human rights – contributions for reflection and action”, a new virtual training course in Spanish, was launched with the goal of organising and training Latin American activists.