Youth RISE is attending the 65th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) this week virtually. We will be updating daily about the side events attended, and the happenings at the Plenary and the Committee of the Whole (CoW). We are giving the youth perspective and reflection on CND through daily vlogs and through blogs.
Our Kenya International Working Group Member Anami MIchael attended the side event titled: ‘Collaboration with Civil Society & Governments in Drug Policies’, organized by Lithuania with the support of Czechia, and the Council of Europe – Pompidou Group and the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA). This is his report from it:
“Mrs. Elena Hedoux Senior Programme Officer, Council of Europe Pompidou Group moderated the side event and she talked of how civil society organization constitute an important element of the democratic process and reasons to why it is important for Civil Societies to engage with governments in making policies.
She referred us back to the European Convention of Human Rights that guarantees freedom of expression and association giving all citizens the right to make their opinions known.
Elena mentioned the expertise of Civil Societies bring on the table when it comes to policy drafting. Problem identification, solutions, evidence-based knowledge and experience is best brought out by civil societies, and this are sentiments shared by Katerina Horackova Director of Drug Policy Department in the Government Office of the Czech Republic, Ms. Eliza Kurcevic from the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) and Mrs. Evelina Pridotkiene Head of monitoring and analysis Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control Department of Lithuania.
Elena Hedoux highlighted on the four forms of cooperation as information, consultation and partnership but still sighted some barriers and opportunities for engagement in drug policy making processes.
The different sensitive security dimensions such as law enforcement and criminal justice systems act as barriers when engaging governments in drug policy.
Elena shared a (link) to a policy paper on government interaction with civil society on drug policy issues: Principles, ways and means, opportunities and challenges. A tool developed by the Pampidou Group and adopted at the 79th meeting of the Permanent Correspondents of the Pampidou Group. I believe this will be helpful for Civil Societies led by communities and young people working in drug policy and are encountering barriers/challenges in engaging the different decision makers at a local, regional and international levels.
Evelina shared some of the best practices from the Lithuanian experience; how they formed working groups that cut across youth organizations & students from different fields of science, university researchers & experts from the state as well as other authorities for the preparation of different parts of the National Agenda.
To evaluate drug policy and provide suggestions, external experts from the social, healthcare, law and economics were involved whereas people using the services, families, communities, organizations and other stake holders actively took part in public consultations. Here, treatment of criminal prosecution was deemed ineffective to reduce problematic substance use and a need to scale up funding of treatment for substance use and harm reduction services were overwhelmingly supported.
Among the core principals shared for the National Agenda were the fostering of human rights, quality of service, comprehensiveness & continuity as well as public education and protection where their education initiative ‘’Be Safe Lab’’ has proven to be a successful collaboration that brings together the state, municipality, business and non-government sectors to protect music festival visitors experimenting with psychoactive substances, helping them understand safer ways of using.
The speaker from the Czech Republic Concluded by saying that the involvement and active participation of Civil Societies in drug policy has direct possibilities to advocate for harm reduction investment within drug policy coordination and decision-making structures.
The cooperation between civil societies with governments and different stakeholders as shared by Ms. Eliza Kurcevic from the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) during the war in Ukraine highlights how the different stake holders and governments have seen them advocate for and ensure access to OST and ART for people who use drugs, they have been able to conduct regular coordination calls with national, regional networks and key institutions in Ukraine providing weekly briefing for OST patients pertaining the stock of OST in the country and places where they can access the services.
The organisation has been working to ensure free access to OST and ART, they have and still are advocating for the opening of shelters for key affected populations based on the needs as well as ensuring a continued supply of Naloxone, Needles and syringes for people who use drugs.
My takeaway from this event was that we need not to work in silos when working in the field of drug policy as all stake holders, communities, decision makers and affected populations matter. There is a need of building working cooperation between governments and Civil Societies as its proven to be a way to improving the effectiveness of development and delivery of sustainable and tailored drug policy reforms.”
Our Ghana International Working Group member attended side event organized by the Penal Reform International with the support of Ghana, the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum and the International Drug Policy Consortium on “Challenging the criminalization of poverty and marginalization in Africa – and beyond”.
The side event brought together diverse speakers to present unique perspectives on the African Context.
H.E Ambassador Philbert Johnson, permanent representative of Ghana to the UN in Vienna
In his opening remarks, he shared that the UN special rapporteur on health and the UN committee on Economic and social rights, said that people shun away from critical health harm reduction services out of fear of punishment or shaming when small possession and its use are criminalized.
He emphasized that important international standards such as UN Common position on drugs or the international guidelines on human rights and drug policies encourage that we adopt policies that decriminalize and provide support to people who use drugs. He added that when we criminalize activities such as drug possession for personal use, the enforcement of such law’s impact is disproportionately on people struggling the most in our society – people living in poverty or marginalized for any other status. He cited the example of Ghana in May 2020 when it adopted a new law that treats drug use as a public health issue counter to criminal, law enforcement, incarceration, punishment and repression – converting previous prison terms into fines of between 200-500 penalty units translating to between 340 – 380 US dollars, meaning instead of sending people to prison for a minimum of 5 years for possession of drugs for personal use under the old law, it will offer alternatives.
Maria Teresa Manuela – Special rapporteur on prisons, conditions of detention and policing in Africa, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights made reference to the fact that in 2017 certain principles were adopted with CSOs and monitor situations related to criminalization of drug use, with the rights of prisoners in focus so they are not imprisoned for minor crimes with emphasis on collaboration with civil society. She shared that their work has been slow but some successes have been chalked like in the case of Mozambique. She stated that some laws have been reviewed so changes can be made, in countries where there is high incidence of drug use, there is the need to target trafficking instead of the people who use drugs. She recommended that efforts are driven towards cooperation with CSOs, concise and clear laws to look at people’s action in society, provide alternatives to prison and not punish people who are already punished by poverty, retention as last resort, look at people as victims and not criminals.
Happy Assan- Director of Tanzania Network of People who Use Drugs highlighted the need for treatment, support and care for PWUD to access certain support with Harm Reduction services, recreational centre and support them on changes instead of targeting, arresting and putting Drug Users behind bars.
Maria Goretti – IDPC African consultant presented a study that explored ways in which the enforcement of Drug policy can affect people who use drugs – the objective was to understand physical and mental environment of people who use drugs and law enforcement agencies as well as custodial facilities where people who use drugs are detained to receive treatment. Sought to identify whether there were any abuses in such facilities were people were kept for treatment or detained. About 72% out of 79 percent interviewed knew people who had experienced violence from law enforcement including beating and starvation when detained. She recommended the need to establish robust mechanism for reporting violence and abuses, ensure at least there are immediate actions to reverse dehumanization and marginalization of PWUD, decriminalized drug use and possession for personal use, establish evidence-based and right-based treatment, re-orientation of inmates and strengthened agencies and facilities to support persons who use drugs as actions post study.
Janele Mangwanda African criminal Justice Reform highlighted an ongoing campaign and shared that significant number of people who are poor were detained for extensive periods for minor and petty offences, arrests were counter to public safety, prison overcrowding major challenge in Africa and police arrests often take place without warranty. She shared that the Campaign milestones covered research and advocacy to raise awareness on problematic laws, constructive alternative to arrests and detention, domestic and regional support to the campaign. Public health restrictions created new laws with criminalizing effect on the poor and marginalized.
Despite progress being experienced across the African region, it is clear that persons living with poverty are highly discriminated and the most affected by the gaps in implementing drug laws, public health responses and human rights interventions, they are at the frontline and the center of outmoded laws that disregards their access to their human rights and enjoying the right to a life of dignity deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic and other threats.