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It has become almost accepted knowledge within international policy circles that efforts against drug trafficking and drug abuse violate human rights, and that the entire international drug control regime needs to be changed (or even discarded altogether) to adopt a more 'rights respecting' approach. Though this view has been promoted by many prominent figures and organisations, the author of this book uses his expertise in both human rights and drug control to show that the arguments advanced in this area do not stand close scrutiny. The arguments are in fact based on selective and questionable interpretations of international human rights standards, and on a general notion - more and more clearly stated - that there is a human right to take drugs, and that any effort to combat drug abuse by definition violates this right. There is no such right in international law, and the author objects to the misuse of human rights language as a marketing tool to bring about a 'back door' legalisation of drugs. Human rights issues must be addressed, but that in no way means that the international drug control regime must be discarded, or that efforts against drugs must be stopped.

Human Rights and Drug Control: The False Dichotomy

1. Introduction

I. Some Terminology Issues-Legalisation, Decriminalisation, and Depenalisation

II. Use/Abuse/Consumption

2. Legal Standards and Regimes

I. The International Drug Control Regime

The 1988 Convention and Criminalisation

The Treaty Monitoring Regime of International Drug Control

The Enforcement Powers of INCB

INCB, UNODC, and Human Rights

II. Human Rights

The International Human Rights Regime

Human Rights Treaty Bodies and INCB

Charter-Based Bodies-The Human Rights Council

The Offi ce of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR)

III. Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

3. UNGASS and Developments in Latin America

I. UNGASS

II. Latin America: Regional Developments

III. Latin America: Developments at the National Level

Bolivia

Uruguay

4. Drug Control: Violating Human Rights?

I. At First, There Was 'Harm Reduction'

Substitution Treatment

Injection Rooms

Conclusion on Harm Reduction

II. Human Rights as a Tool

Death Penalty

Law Enforcement and the Excessive Use of Force

Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment and Forced Labour

Arbitrary Detention and the International Drug Control Conventions

III. Persons who Abuse Drugs as a 'Vulnerable Group'

IV. Militarisation of Drug Law Enforcement

Organised Crime

Pain Relief and Legalisation of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan

Pain Relief Globally

5. Mandated Treatment and Drug Courts

I. Portugal

6. The 'Right to Abuse Drugs'

Afterword: Views of the Author