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Human Rights and Drugs

Drugs and Democracy

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.

Latest

  • Connecting the dots... Human rights, illicit cultivation and alternative development

    • Human Rights and Drugs
    • Alternative Development
    • Conventions on Drugs

    How can we resolve the tensions between current drug control policies and states’ human rights obligations? The international human rights framework clearly establishes that, in the event of conflicts between obligations under the UN Charter and other international agreements, human rights obligations take precedence. As legally regulated cannabis markets start to grow, now is the time to secure a legitimate place for small farmers using alternative development, human rights and fair trade principles. Order print copy

    Report by
    Martin Jelsma

  • Women and Drugs in Myanmar A primer

    • Producers of Crops
    • Drug Policy in Myanmar
    • Human Rights and Drugs
    Primer by
    • Dania Putri
    • Ernestien Jensema

  • Towards a Healthier Legal Environment A Review of Myanmar's Drug Laws

    • Drugs Regulation
    • Human Rights and Drugs
    • Drugs and Conflict
    • Drug Policy in Myanmar
    Report by
    • Ernestien Jensema
    • Martin Jelsma
    • Nang Pann Ei Kham
    • Gloria Lai
    • Tripti Tandon

  • Mexico's disappeared : The enduring cost of a crisis ignored

    • Drug Law Reform
    • Human Rights and Drugs
    Publication

  • Governing The Global Drug Wars

    • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
    • UNGASS
    • UN Drug Control
    • Drug Law Reform
    • Cannabis
    • Human Rights and Drugs
    • Conventions on Drugs
    Report

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