From: IHRA Info [mailto:info@ihra.net]
Sent: 30 November, 2010 5:31 AM
To: Haden, Mark [VC]
Subject: IHRA November E-Update
 | IHRA E-Updates |
| November 2010 Edition | |
| 1. Thematic Briefings on Human Rights and Drug Policy/K?????? ???????????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???? ???????? ? ?????????????  In many countries around the world, drug control efforts result in serious human rights abuses: torture and ill treatment by police, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, denial of essential medicines and basic health services. Drug control policies, and accompanying enforcement practices, often entrench and exacerbate systematic discrimination against people who use drugs, and impede access to controlled essential medicines for those who need them for therapeutic purposes. These briefing papers are intended to provide a basic overview of some of the core human rights issues related to drug control efforts and to show how they interconnect, and to spark a discussion of how international human rights law can be engaged to address a range of human rights concerns raised by drug enforcement laws, policies, and practices. Read More | In this Issue:
Quick Links: |
| 2. A harm reduction approach to drug use is still relevant', says Professor Gerry Stimson  In a lecture given at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 17th November 2010 IHRA's former Executive Director, Gerry Stimson, defended harm reduction from political revisionism. ‘Harm reduction aims to reduce the risks of drugs, and to mitigate impacts on the individual and the wider society. It is basic good public health and social policy. So, why doesn't everyone support it? Conservative party ideologues have rewritten the history of harm reduction. They blame it on Labour. But harm reduction has a long history’.Read More | |
| 3. Out of Harm’s Way’ a new report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)  To mark World AIDS Day 2010, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) have released a report highlighting the failures of governments and donors to effectively tackle HIV and injecting drug use, and the urgency with which a human-rights based, effective response is needed. A central message of the report is the importance of prioritising harm reduction over the criminalisation of drug use – because “it works and is a human-rights based approach”. 'Out of Harm’s Way’ outlines the severity of the epidemic and the human rights violations routinely faced by people who inject drugs around the world. Amongst the report’s several recommendations are the decriminalisation of drug users, as well as access to due legal process and health services for those who use drugs both within, and outside prisons and other closed settings. | |
| 4. UN health rapporteur: Drug war ignores rights, decriminalize narcotics use  Anand Grover, a well-known lawyer from India, also said the war on drugs has ignored drug users' human rights. Grover is the U.N. Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on physical and mental health. He told the General Assembly committee dealing with rights issues that people who use drugs may not get the health care they need for fear of being arrested, or may be denied health care if they seek help.Read More | |
| 5. ACMD: Foil, as an intervention, to reduce the harms of injection heroin  The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has produced a report on the exemption of foil from Section 9A of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, as a harm reduction intervention. As the report states, “Evidence has been provided to the ACMD that some drug intervention agencies supply specialist foil to drug users to encourage smoking as a safer alternative to the practice of injecting.” Citing the extensive benefits of foil in reducing the risk of blood borne viruses, overdose and other harms – with few if any identified drawbacks – the ACMD report states “that the balance of benefit favours exempting foil from Section 9A of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.”Read More | |
| 6. IHRA releases new briefing on the death penalty for drug offences  IHRA has released a new briefing written in partnership with Human Rights Watch and Penal Reform International entitled 'The Death Penalty for Drug Offences and International Support for Drug Enforcement'. The purpose of this briefing is to highlight the dangers associated with funding drug control activities in countries with capital drug laws as detailed in IHRA’s report Complicity or Abolition? The Death Penalty and International Support for Drug Enforcement.Read More | |
| 7. Inter Press Service: Execution for Drug Offences Challenged  Two Georgian women are facing the death sentence in Malaysia in a case that human rights campaigners say has highlighted worries over the continued imposition of capital punishment for drugs offences. Babutsa Gorgadze, 26, and Darejan Kokhtashvili, 37, were arrested last month in Malaysia after they were found with more than 10 kilos of methamphetamine. Under strict Malaysian laws the pair, both mothers, are now facing mandatory death penalties if convicted and efforts are under way by Georgian authorities to stop the pair being sentenced to death if convicted. | |
| 8. Call for Candidates for Roster of Practitioners in HIV and Human Rights  The XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, whose theme was “Rights Here, Rights Now,” provided a unique opportunity to bring together many people from around the world who share an interest in and commitment to a human rights-based response to HIV/AIDS. As a follow-up to AIDS 2010 and as part of a larger effort to support greater collaboration among key people working on HIV, human rights and law, UNAIDS and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network have partnered in order to develop an international roster of practitioners with experience in HIV and human rights. Read More | |
| 9. Joint statement delivered at African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 48th Ordinary Session  The International Harm Reduction Association signed a joint statement with a group of NGOs, raising objections to the Gambian National Assembly’s introduction of the death penalty for drug offences. The statement was delivered at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 48th Ordinary Session in Banjul. IHRA co-signed the statement with Penal Reform International (PRI), Foundation for International Human Rights (FHRI), International Federation of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (FIACAT) and World organization against Torture (OMCT). | |
| 10. Global Commission on HIV and the Law - Call for Submissions for ASIA-PACIFIC Regional Dialogue  On behalf of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, this is a Call for Submissions for the Commission’s Asia-Pacific Regional Dialogue. The first Regional Dialogue for the Asia-Pacific will take place on 24-25 February 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. In addition to giving voice to regional and country perspectives on issues of HIV and the law, the dialogue aims to contribute to regional efforts for creating enabling legal environments which support effective HIV responses.Read More | |
| International Harm Reduction Association - Unit 701 - The Chandlery 50 Westminster Bridge Road - London - SE1 7QY - United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 207 953 7412 Fax: +44 (0) 207 953 7404 Email: info@ihra.net Web: www.ihra.net Charity number – 1117375 | Company number – 3223265 © 2010 International Harm Reduction Association | |
|
 Manage your subscription |
0 comments:
Post a Comment