UNGASS on the world drug problem: People, public health and human rights at the centre

On 21 October 2015, Switzerland and Colombia co-chaired an event in Geneva entitled UNGASS on the World Drug Problem: People, Public Health, and Human Rights at the Centre—a High-Level Multi Stakeholder Perspective, which brought together:

• Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
• Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO).
• Aldo Lalé-Demoz, Deputy Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
• (UNODC).
• Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations
• High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
• Thomas Gass, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and
• Inter-Agency Affairs.
• Mike Trace, Chair of the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC).

The event raised awareness at a high-level among missions in Geneva, civil society and other partners on the importance of the public health and human rights dimension in the context of the world drug problem, as well as of the close intersection between these two themes. Forty-six countries from all the regions were represented, as well as the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and civil society. This executive summary seeks to put forth the key messages of the high-level stakeholder event without interpretation in order to inform the discussions leading up to the production of the outcome document to be adopted by the General Assembly on the occasion of UNGASS 2016 on the World Drug Problem.

The need to integrate public health and human rights approaches to drug control was substantiated by top representatives of four United Nations agencies—UNAIDS, UNODC, WHO and OHCHR. The four United Nations agencies’ statements included common themes underlining problems resulting from drug control approaches that are not sufficiently public health and human rights-based. The three common themes are shown below, each followed by compelling facts from the various speakers’ statements.

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