Human rights

Human rights apply to everyone. Drug users, traffickers and growers do not forfeit their human rights, and must be able to enjoy the right to the highest attainable standard of health, as well as to social services, employment, education, freedom from arbitrary detention and so on. The trend has been to toughen drug laws and sentencing guidelines, setting mandatory minimums, disproportionate prison sentences and even death penalties in several countries. Consideration of human rights are becoming essential elements in a growing number of countries’ application of drug legislation.

Bogotá’s medical care centres for drug addicts

January 2013
Nr. 22 - 
Julián Quintero

The opening in September 2012 of the first centre for drug addicts in Bogota is a welcome first step towards more humane and effective drug policies in Colombia’s capital city, but to be effective needs to be integrated into proper overall drugs strategy.

AIDS 2012 – Time for courage if we are going to turn the tide

August 2012
Ann Fordham

As a participant at last week’s 19th International HIV/AIDS Conference, I was reminded of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark’s call to arms earlier in July that there is a new prescription for the AIDS response: ‘courage is needed’.

Mérida: continued support for a failed strategy

May 2012
Liza ten Velde

5 years ago Felipe Calderón declared a War on Drugs followed by a firm military crackdown on drug trafficking organizations. The US and Mexico agreed upon the Mérida Initiative; provision of US security assistance, mainly in the form of security equipment and law enforcement training for police and military.  What it has ‘accomplished’ is a severe deterioration of Mexico’s human rights climate related to abuses by army officials employed in domestic law enforcement tasks and to the specifics of military jurisdiction in Mexico.

Has incoming Colombian President Santos inherited a "Captured State"?

August 2010
Coletta Youngers

Juan Manual Santos has inherited what some Colombian analysts call a “captured state” and those forces remain at the center of his own base of political support. As a result, many assume that a Santos administration means continuity – more of the same but perhaps with a gentler face. However, there are other, incipient positive signs of change.

The Impact of Militia Actions on Public Security Policies in Rio de Janeiro

March 2010
Tom Blickman
Paulo Jorge Ribeiro and Rosane Oliveira

An examination of the rise of militias – well-organised private vigilante groups made up of rogue, dismissed or retired police officers, firemen and prison guards - in the recurrent episodes of extreme urban violence in Rio de Janeiro, which represents developments in urban security that spread far beyond Brazil.

Drugs and Human Rights: Related websites and documents

November 2005
Drugs and Democracy

Links on drugs and human rights

Een verkeerde stap in een foutieve richting

October 1999
Tom Blickman

Op 13 april 1999 sloot Nederland een verdrag met de Verenigde Staten over de vestiging van Amerikaanse militaire steunpunten op Aruba en Curaçao, de zogenaamde "Forward Operating Locations" (FOLs). Onderhandelingen over een verlenging voor een periode van tien jaar zijn nu gaande.

Conclusions: Democracias bajo fuego

May 1998
Drugs and Democracy

The only lasting solution to the political and social instability and the corruption of governments and security forces, which are linked to drug trafficking, lies in gradual decriminalization of the market.

Introduction: Democracias bajo fuego

May 1998
Martin Jelsma
Theo Roncken

Drug policies, as currently implemented, with their highly repressive nature, cause more problems than they solve in Latin America.

Democracias bajo fuego

May 1998
Martin Jelsma
and others

Democracias bajo fuego illustrates that the current repressive drug policies create more damage than that they produce solutions in Latin America.