Justice Project Pakistan and the National Commission for Human Rights highlight how punitive drug laws and prolonged pre-trial detention are fuelling prison overcrowding, underscoring the need for rights-based reform.
Justice Project Pakistan's brief shows how Pakistan's punitive drug control system places women at greater risk of criminalisation, particularly those facing structural, social and economic barriers, and calls for gender-responsive legislation that upholds their rights.
IDPC, formerly incarcerated women and civil society partners call for drug policies rooted in care rather than punishment, with women with lived experience at the centre of policymaking and greater action to address gender and structural inequalities.
The Working Group on Women and Incarceration in Latin America analyses how the fight against organised crime affects women in contact with prison systems, as well as their families and children.
PRI and TIJ discuss how punitive drug policies continue to drive imprisonment, while incarcerated people who use drugs face severe gaps in evidence-based harm reduction.
Drug offences account for almost half of all confirmed executions worldwide, despite failing to meet the international law threshold of the 'most serious crimes'.
This side event at centres the rights and experiences of families of people deprived of liberty, highlighting the impact of incarceration on women, children and adolescents.
The Working Group on Women, Drug Policy and Incarceration analyses how punitive drug policies have driven the incarceration of women in Latin America and proposes gender-sensitive and intersectional responses.
Acción Andina and the Programa Libertas outline how punitive practices and prohibitionist logics persist in Bolivia, highlighting the voices of surviving victims.
In a first for the Commission on the Status of Women, the text explicitly recognises women in prison, opening possibilities for justice for nearly one million women incarcerated globally.
UN experts warn that the growing number of women imprisoned globally is driven largely by punitive drug policies and socio-economic inequalities, urging States to prioritise alternatives to detention and gender-responsive justice reforms ahead of CSW70.
