10/12/07: End Death Penalty for Drug Offences – New Report
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International Harm Reduction Association concludes executions for drug offences violate international human rights law
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10 December, International Human Rights Day – A new report released today calls for an end to the use of the death penalty for drug offences. The report, The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: A Violation of International Human Rights Law (1), was published by the London-based International Harm Reduction Association.
The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) is a leading international NGO promoting policies and practices that reduce drug-related harms. Drug-related harms do not only include an increased vulnerability to HIV and hepatitis C infection, but also the effects of repressive law enforcement activities that result in human right abuses against drug users.
133 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Of the 64 countries that retain capital punishment, half apply the death penalty to drug-related offences (2), the majority of these being in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific regions. In many of these countries the death penalty may be applied to people convicted for possession of illicit drugs, not only to those convicted for trafficking offences. In some countries, drug offenders comprise a significant proportion of executions each year.
In Malaysia, for example, between July 2004 and July 2005, 36 of the 52 executions carried out were for drug trafficking. Over recent years, the Chinese authorities have marked the UN’s international anti-drug day by executing people for drug-related offences. In 2001, over fifty people were publicly executed for drug-related crimes at mass rallies, at least one of which was broadcast on state television (3). While many of these deaths go unnoticed in international media, one case that has received significant attention worldwide concerns nine Australian nationals who are currently being held on death row in Bali (Indonesia) having been convicted of drug trafficking. Several of the ‘Bali nine’ have exhausted almost all routes of appeal and may face the firing squad soon (4).
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the main UN human rights treaties, the use of capital punishment, while not prohibited, is restricted in several ways. One of the key restrictions is that the death penalty may only be applied for the “most serious crimes”. Both the UN Human Rights Committee (which monitors and interprets the terms of the ICCPR) and the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions have stated that drug offences do not constitute “most serious crimes” under the ICCPR, and that executions for such offences are therefore in violation of international human rights law.
While the number of countries practicing capital punishment has steadily decreased over the past twenty years, the IHRA report highlights the fact that the number of death penalty states expanding the scope of capital punishment to include drug offences has steadily increased.
Rick Lines, Senior Policy Advisor for IHRA and author of the report, said:
“The UN human rights system has stated definitively that drug-related crimes do not constitute death penalty offences. Executions for drug offences therefore violate international human rights law, and the international community must bring pressure to bear upon states to end this illegal practice.
“While progress towards the abolition of capital punishment is a significant success of the human rights movement, the expansion of capital punishment for drug offences during that same period can only be seen as a dramatic failure.”
Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of IHRA, said:
“Capital punishment for drug offences is but one illustration of how human rights have been sacrificed in the name of the ‘war on drugs’. Unfortunately, the death penalty is not the only example of such abuses worldwide. Repressive law enforcement practices, the denial of health services to drug users and the spread of HIV infection among people who inject drugs, due to lack of access to harm reduction programmes, are far too common in many countries across the globe.”
For further information contact
Prof Gerry Stimson
Executive Director, International Harm Reduction Association
(Emeritus Professor, Imperial College London)
0207 940 7526
Rick Lines
Senior Policy Advisor, International Harm Reduction Association
0207 940 7525
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 Click to read media release [PDF:96KB]
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Click to read media release [WORD:177KB]
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12/7/07: Evidence, not ideology, must drive public policy on drug use:
International Harm Reduction Association
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Commenting on the launch of the Conservative Party’s new drug policy proposals, the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) has called for UK drug and public health policy to be based upon evidence, not politics.
IHRA is the leading organisation in promoting evidence-based harm reduction policies and practices on a global basis for all psychoactive substances, including illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol.
“Iain Duncan Smith say he wants a ‘clean break’ from harm reduction programmes such as needle exchanges,” said Prof Gerry Stimson, IHRA Executive Director. “These programmes were in fact introduced by the Conservative Government in 1987, and they have helped keep HIV infection among injecting drug users extremely low by international standards. The Tories also expanded our methadone programmes.”
“The Conservative’s new drug policy suggests there is insufficient research to support harm reduction interventions. In fact nothing could be further from the truth, as the controversial nature of these programmes means they are among the most rigorously monitored and evaluated of all drug programmes. The scientific research from around the world shows clearly that needle exchange and methadone save lives, and for this reason these interventions are supported by the World Health Organization and the United Nations, among many others.”
“Interestingly, the detailed research on harm reduction produced by the WHO and the UN is conspicuously absent from the new Tory policy, suggesting that the authors have cherry-picked their ‘evidence’ to fit pre-determined, ideologically driven outcomes,” said Prof Stimson.
“Of course we need more and better treatment programmes to rehabilitate people who use drugs. But let’s not fool ourselves, you can’t rehabilitate someone who has died from HIV/AIDS.”
For further information contact
Prof Gerry Stimson
Executive Director, International Harm Reduction Association
(Emeritus Professor, Imperial College London)
0207 940 7526
Rick Lines
Senior Policy Advisor, International Harm Reduction Association
0207 940 7525
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Click to read media release [PDF:106KB]
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Click to read media release [WORD:178KB]
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