AFEW International, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Andrey Rylkov Foundation, IDPC
Invite you to the CND side event
Reducing the harms of drug control in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Friday, 17 March 2017, 13:00 – 14:00
Location: Room MOE100
The side event will emphasize the importance of better integrating human rights, public health and drug policies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA). It will also explore possible steps that could facilitate constructive discussions and action by the responsible governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations.
In many EECA countries there has been insufficient progress in ensuring that all aspects of drug control are addressed in conformity with human rights as part of drug control, despite this commitment appearing repeatedly in CND and General Assembly resolutions, including most recently the outcome document of the UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in 2016. Meanwhile, the human rights concerns raised by drug control are increasingly the subject of comment by a growing number of international bodies, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN human rights treaty bodies and procedures, UN agencies and even on occasion the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors states’ implementation of the UN drug control conventions. Human rights concerns raised in the EECA include establishing proportionate penalties and reducing over-incarceration, ensuring access to justice and due process, freedom of expression, ending discriminatory impacts of drug control enforcement, and realizing the right to health, including ensuring adequate access to controlled substances for pain relief and other medical purposes (such as expanded treatment options for opioid dependence).
Agenda
Moderator: Ann Fordham, IDPC
- Meet Dima and Lena from Kazakhstan: two short films of people who use drugs who have experienced human rights violations
- Key human rights and public health concerns related to drug control in EECA: what needs to be done?
Richard Elliott, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
- Human rights violation documentation and paralegal work in Russia: the work of a non-governmental organization
Anya Sarang, Andrey Rylkov Foundation*
- A balanced approach: how drug control, human rights and health were effectively linked in the Netherlands
Victor Sannes, National Drugs Coordinator, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare the Netherlands
- Discussion: how can drug control agencies be more constructively engaged in the discussions and implementation of human rights and public health policies in EECA
*Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice is registered as “foreign agent” by Russian Ministry of Justice.