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The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- The enjoyment of the right to health of all people who use drugs - and are dependent on drugs - is applicable irrespective of the fact of their drug use. It is important that drug use and drug dependence are not conflated: drug dependence is considered a chronic, relapsing disorder involving altered brain function that may require medical treatment, ideally utilizing a "biopsychosocial" approach. By contrast, drug use is not a medical condition and does not necessarily imply dependence. Indeed the majority of people who use drugs do not become dependent and do not require any treatment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The right to health seeks, inter alia, to ensure access to quality health facilities, goods and services without discrimination, including on the grounds of physical or mental disability, or health status. Article 2, paragraph 2, and article 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also prohibit discrimination in achieving realization of all rights within the Covenant. As such, an individual's use of drugs cannot constitute grounds for curtailing her/his rights, irrespective of whether she or he has a recognized dependence syndrome or whether the applicable drug control regime allows for imprisonment or other sanctions. People who use drugs and people who are dependent on drugs possess the same freedoms and entitlements guaranteed by international legal instruments, and both groups experience violations of their rights under the current international drug control regime.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- A number of United Nations bodies enforce the three drug control treaties and are required to promote and protect human rights, as identified in Articles 1 and 55 of the Charter of the United Nations. When the goals and approaches of the international drug control regime and international human rights regime conflict, it is clear that human rights obligations should prevail. The General Assembly has consistently adopted resolutions declaring that international drug control must be carried out in conformity with the Charter, and "with full respect for human rights" (see resolutions 62/176 and 63/197).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- The International Narcotics Control Board oversees implementation of all three drug conventions. It monitors illicit drug production and trade, as well as access to controlled substances for scientific and medicinal purposes, and has the authority to investigate Governments that do not comply with treaty requirements. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs classifies narcotic and psychotropic drugs under different levels of restriction and serves as the governing body for the United Nations International Drug Control Programme within the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Office is mandated "to contribute to the achievement of security and justice for all by making the world safer from drugs, crime and terrorism".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 13
- Paragraph text
- Although the drug control bodies rarely have engaged in constructive human rights-related discussions in the past, recently there has been a welcome shift towards incorporating human rights-based approaches into their work. UNODC has examined ways in which drug control can be synchronized better with the protection of human rights, and the President of the International Narcotics Control Board recently met informally for the first time with civil society representatives. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs also adopted a resolution concerning the promotion of human rights in implementing the international drug control treaties, and has considered the issues of HIV/AIDS and access to medicines in other resolutions. Nevertheless, it is clear that significantly more must be done to make human rights central to drug control.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- Unfortunately, the current approach to global drug control maintains that drugs are an undisputable "evil", which the international community has a "duty to combat". The concept of a war on drugs is used to justify extreme policies and practices. The links drawn between drug production and the funding of armed groups, for example between opium growers and the Taliban in Afghanistan, have further justified a zero-tolerance approach, even though such policies are increasingly shown to be ineffective in reducing the supply of and demand for drugs. Therefore, this approach not only fails to achieve its primary stated aim - preventing health-related harms of drug use - but also fails to achieve genuine drug control.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- The war-on-drugs approach also fails to acknowledge the realities of drug use and dependence and, for that reason, has been unsuccessful in achieving its stated aims. First, people invariably continue using drugs irrespective of criminal laws, even though deterrence of drug use is considered the primary justification for imposition of penal sanctions. Second, drug dependence, as distinct from drug use, is a medical condition requiring appropriate, evidence-based treatment - not criminal sanctions. Finally, punitive drug control regimes increase the harms associated with drug use by directing resources towards inappropriate methods and misguided solutions, while neglecting evidence-based approaches.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Drug use may have harmful health consequences, but the Special Rapporteur is concerned that the current drug control approach creates more harm than the harms it seeks to prevent. Criminalization of drug use, designed to deter drug use, possession and trafficking, has failed. Instead, it has perpetuated risky forms of drug use, while disproportionately punishing people who use drugs. Its ramifications for the health of the wider community, particularly in relation to HIV/AIDS, are no less severe: the 2010 Vienna Declaration notes that the criminalization of illicit drug users is fuelling the HIV epidemic. Millennium Development Goal 6 requires States to commit to halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 (see General Assembly resolution 55/2), but continuing criminalization directly contradicts several multilateral health policies.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- Health is a human right that is indispensable for the exercise of other human rights. Countries that are overly punitive in sentencing also violate other rights of people who use drugs. Thirty-two jurisdictions currently retain the death penalty for drug offences, some mandatorily. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows for imposition of the death sentence only for "the most serious crimes" (General Assembly resolution 2200 A (XXI)). The Human Rights Committee and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions have confirmed that drug offences do not meet those criteria, and thus executions for drug offences are in violation of international human rights law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Criminalization of drug use and possession are implicated in violation of several human rights, including the right to health. Other infringements of the right to health are less direct, but occur as by-products of the skewed focus of the international drug control regime: for instance, insufficient access to essential medications. The Special Rapporteur considers that each of these violations is traceable ultimately to a disproportionate focus on criminalization and law enforcement practices at the expense of the enjoyment of the right to health and reduction of harms associated with drugs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 19
- Paragraph text
- In countries where the "war on drugs" is zealously pursued or drug laws are enforced stringently, those who are dependent on drugs may be, and often are, discouraged from accessing health services. It is reported that in some countries this approach has reinforced the status of people who use drugs as social outcasts, driving drug use underground, compromising the HIV/AIDS response, as well as discouraging people who use drugs from accessing treatment. And where HIV infections occur through unsafe injecting practices, seroprevalence among injecting drug users can be as high as 50 per cent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 22
- Paragraph text
- People who use drugs are often subjected to discrimination in medical settings. Access to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy can be low for people who use drugs: in Eastern Europe, although 70 per cent of reported cases of HIV occurred among people who injected drugs, this group comprised 39 per cent of the total population of people living with HIV receiving ARV therapy. This may be attributed to structural inequalities that impede access of these groups to the therapy; for instance, lack of targeted interventions. Cases of health-care providers, however, denying ARV treatment to people who use drugs also have been noted, in direct contravention of a right-to-health approach.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Individuals may also be denied access to other medical treatments on the grounds of their prior or current drug use, where evidence does not exist to justify the denial of such treatment. For example, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland it is reported that past or current users of drugs have been denied treatment for the hepatitis C virus, contrary to official guidance, on the basis that they would not adhere to treatment. Treatment adherence among people who use drugs is not necessarily lower, and should be assessed on an individual basis.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Criminalization of drug use and possession also may lead to an increased risk of illness among people who use drugs. Higher rates of legal repression have been associated with higher HIV prevalence among people who use injecting drugs, without a decrease in prevalence of injecting drug use. This is a likely result of individuals' adopting riskier injection practices such as sharing of syringes and injection supplies, hurried injecting, or use of drugs in unsafe places (such as needle-shooting galleries) out of fear of arrest or punishment. Hurried preparation of drugs to avoid detection by law enforcement agents also predisposes people who inject drugs to an increased risk of overdose, vascular accident and infections, such as abscesses. These risks may be exacerbated by an individual's reluctance, out of fear, to utilize assistance in preparing and injecting drugs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- Police crackdowns and other interventions associated with criminalization of drug use and possession also result in displacement of drug users from areas serviced by harm-reduction programmes, decreasing their ability to participate in needle and syringe programmes, opioid substitution therapy (OST) and access to outreach workers. Access to emergency assistance in the instance of an overdose also is impeded, and the incidence of overdose may be increased by disrupting access to regular injecting networks and drug suppliers. Those most affected by displacement often are the most marginalized; for instance, the homeless, who cannot necessarily move indoors to use drugs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Punitive drug policies also disproportionately impact on communities that are already vulnerable. For instance, it has been reported that in the United States of America, African-Americans are arrested at consistently higher rates than white Americans, although the rates of offences committed are comparable between these groups. Additionally, over 80 per cent of arrests are for possession of drugs, rather than sales. Accumulation of such minor offences can lead to incarceration and further marginalization of these already vulnerable individuals, increasing their health-related risks.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Currently over 9 million people are held in penal institutions worldwide. In many prisons, rates of HIV infection are noted to be several times higher than in the mainstream community. This is attributed to injecting drug use prior to imprisonment, as well as risk factors within these populations, such as poverty and marginalization. The prevalence of hepatitis infections within prisons is also high, with hepatitis C infection rates exceeding those of HIV. Once in prison, high rates of injecting drug use, combined with a lack of access to OST and sterile injecting equipment, create enormous risk for inmates. That risk is then passed on to members of the public upon prisoners' release. Failure to implement effective harm-reduction programmes and drug-dependence treatment in those settings violates the enjoyment of the right to health.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Some of the most egregious violations of the right to health have occurred in the context of "treatment" for drug dependence. Criminalization of drug use fuels the perception that people who use drugs are unproductive criminals or moral degenerates, which in turn allows disciplinary treatment approaches to proliferate. In place of evidence-based medical management, Governments and enforcement authorities coerce or force drug-dependent individuals into centres where they are subject to ill-treatment and forced labour. This approach discriminates against people who use drugs, denying them their right to access medically appropriate health-care services and treatment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- The present report concerns compulsory treatment programmes that primarily utilize disciplinary interventions, disregarding medical evidence. In such settings, medical professionals who are trained to manage drug dependence disorders as medical illnesses are often inaccessible. Forced labour, solitary confinement and experimental treatments administered without consent violate international human rights law and are illegitimate substitutes for evidence-based measures such as substitution therapy, psychological interventions and other forms of treatment given with full, informed consent.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- The enjoyment of the right to health includes, inter alia, access to health facilities, goods and services that are scientifically and medically appropriate and of good quality and the "right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from torture, non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation". Moreover, article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights declares that "no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation". States are obliged to respect, protect and fulfil the enjoyment of the right to health, including by refraining from using coercive medical treatments, except in the narrowest possible circumstances for the treatment of mental illness or the prevention and control of communicable diseases. The requirements of informed consent must be observed in administering any treatment for drug dependence - including the right to refuse treatment.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Such disciplinary treatments more often than not substitute for evidence-based methods. As a result, many people dependent on heroin and other opioids suffer through unmedicated withdrawal, instead of receiving pharmacologically supported withdrawal or OST. Classifying methadone and buprenorphine as illegal creates an extra barrier to accessing such drug-dependence treatments. Imposition of compulsory treatment, at the expense of OST and other harm-reduction interventions, also increases the risk of disease transmission, particularly HIV/AIDS.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 38
- Paragraph text
- As examined in a previous report of the Special Rapporteur, informed consent to treatment is a cornerstone of the right to health, the requirements of which would be satisfied on extremely rare occasions in forced administration of punitive treatment. Decisions regarding capacity and competence, and the need to obtain informed consent, must be made on a case-by-case basis. Treatment en masse prima facie fails to meet this requirement. In some countries, it is reported that people who use drugs have been arrested en masse and forced into compulsory treatment centres. This approach leads to forced treatment of individuals based on inadequate, cursory medical examinations - if they are undertaken at all.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Emergency obstetric procedures and management of epilepsy also require use of scheduled medications, and remain inadequately resourced. Post-partum haemorrhage results in over 100,000 maternal deaths annually. Oxytocin and ergometrine, two controlled drugs used in obstetric procedures, are difficult to access yet reduce the risk of severe post-partum bleeding by more than half. Similarly, around 75 per cent of people with epilepsy in developing countries and up to 90 per cent of patients with epilepsy in Africa do not receive treatment with essential medicines, including phenobarbital, partly because it is a controlled substance.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Compliance with procedural requirements associated with stocking, supplying and prescribing scheduled medications can be burdensome for health-care institutions and workers, creating a barrier to supply of these medications. Such procedures, for example, include restrictive licensing of controlled medicines within health-care institutions. In some countries, it is reported that only "Level 1" hospitals are allowed to prescribe opioids. Regulations also limit the substances a doctor may prescribe, or the amount that can be prescribed. Certain States require health-care workers to obtain special licences to prescribe morphine, in addition to their professional licences. Restrictive laws are a particular problem in the cases of methadone and buprenorphine, drugs used for OST. In some States use of these drugs is outlawed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- Many myths exist surrounding the use of controlled drugs: that they lead to addiction, do not treat pain adequately, or that chronic or terminal pain is untreatable. Health-care workers themselves often are undereducated in palliative care and feel uncomfortable prescribing opioid analgesics for fear they will lead to dependence, to the contrary conclusions of scores of studies. Where inadequate training is the norm, health-care workers may be unsure of the legal implications of their prescribing practices - especially in relation to patients who use illicit drugs - and may avoid prescribing these medications altogether, which further limits the supply of essential medications.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- A human rights-based approach to drug control must be adopted as a matter of priority to prevent the continuing violations of rights stemming from the current approaches to curtailing supply and demand, and to move towards the creation of a humane system that meets its own health-related objectives. Currently, there is a lack of coordination and discussion between the actors involved in drug control and human rights at the international level. Law enforcement approaches are ingrained institutionally in the international drug control regime, as drug control is housed within UNODC, which leads the United Nations efforts on organized crime. This association between law enforcement and drug control, in part, precludes adoption of a human rights-based approach and interaction with the human rights bodies of the United Nations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- The ineffectiveness of the current international drug control system must be understood, and reform undertaken at all policymaking levels. National governments should implement harm reduction programmes and policies, decriminalize or de-penalize drug use and possession, and reform regulations concerning essential medicines. United Nations drug control bodies must ensure system-wide coherence by adopting a human rights-based approach to drug control, which necessarily requires recognition of international human rights as central to their operations, and these changes in the international system should also guide and legitimize domestic reforms.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- Needle and syringe programmes involve provision of sterile injection equipment to injecting drug users. The World Health Organization has endorsed the use of such programmes, noting that "compelling evidence" exists that they reduce HIV infections substantially, in a cost-effective manner, without any major negative consequences. The use of needle and syringe programmes is consistent with standard public health principles, in that elimination of a vector (in this case, the contaminated needles) reduces transmission of vector-driven disease.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Opioid substitution therapy (OST) is an evidence-based treatment approach, involving prescription of substitute medications for opioid dependence, such as methadone or buprenorphine. OST decreases the prevalence of injecting drug use and sharing of injecting equipment, thus reducing the risk of contracting HIV and other blood-borne viruses. Global availability of OST could reduce cases of new HIV infections by over 100,000, reduce significantly the prevalence of other blood-borne diseases, and reduce overdose deaths from opioid use by nearly 90 per cent. Where OST is not available, a higher incidence of overdose often is observed following drug dependence treatment, owing to the individual's decreased tolerance for the drug. Additionally, numerous studies indicate that pharmacological support is effective at managing withdrawal from opioids and preventing relapse into drug use.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- Interventions such as education programmes are also designed to minimize harm to individuals who use drugs. Currently, little information exists on their effectiveness, often because they are integrated into other programmes, but they are frequently utilized. One meta-analysis concluded that educational programmes result in risk-reducing behaviour change among people who use drugs, but results varied based on programme design. Outreach programmes are used to contact people who use drugs in their own communities, and to provide information, referral to medical testing and services, among other activities. A reduction in risk behaviour of around 27 per cent has been observed following contact with outreach services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2019
Paragraph