Human Rights Challenges in Addressing the World Drug Problem – Gender

December 1, 2023

United Nations – General Assembly – A/HRC/54/53 – Distr.: General 15 August 2023

Human Rights Council

Fifty-fourth session

11 September–6 October 2023

Agenda item 3

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Human rights challenges in addressing and countering all aspects of the world drug problem

Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights*

Summary

The present report outlines human rights challenges in addressing and countering key aspects of the world drug problem. It also offers an overview of recent positive developments to shift towards more human rights-centred drug policies, and provides recommendations on the way forward in view of the upcoming midterm review of the 2019 Ministerial Declaration and to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

4.Women

45. Women face higher levels of stigma and discrimination than men who use drugs. Women are disproportionately affected by criminalization and incarceration, with 35 per cent of women in prison worldwide having been convicted of a drug-related offence compared to 19 per cent of men.113

46. In a recent study, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights noted that women accounted for 8 per cent of the prison population in the Americas, a figure that had increased by 56.1 per cent in the past 22 years, while the overall prison population had grown by 24.5 per cent. The Inter-American Commission explained this trend by the implementation of hardline drug policies entailing a prohibitionist, repressive approach that seeks to eradicate the illicit drug market by prioritizing incarceration over alternatives to prison. 114 In an advisory opinion on differentiated approaches concerning certain groups of persons in detention, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights directed States to provide or facilitate programmes of care and specialized support in the area of the unlawful use of drugs by women.115

47. Women who use drugs also face significant stigma and discrimination in accessing harm reduction programmes, drug dependence treatment and basic health care.116 The gender gap in treatment is particularly acute for women who use amphetamine-type stimulants, as women account for almost one in two users of amphetamines but only one in four people in treatment for related disorders.117 Removing the gender barriers to addiction services is of paramount importance.118 Although this issue has been recognized by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 52/24 and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in its resolution 59/5 on mainstreaming a gender perspective in drug-related policies and programmes, much remains to be done to effectively scale up gender-responsive addiction programming while pursuing robust strategies that address the root drivers of inequities.119

48. Special procedures have noted that the causes of women’s interaction with the criminal justice system in relation to drugs are complex, are often linked to other factors such as poverty and coercion, and may reflect systemic gender inequality in society more broadly.120

49. Submissions highlighted the failure of punitive drug policies to address multiple factors of vulnerability of women. Poverty, limited education, low-paid jobs, gender-based violence and stereotypes, and the use of women’s bodies as a means of hiding narcotics, are reportedly dominant factors in women being subject to criminal proceedings for drug-related offences.121 Submissions also stressed that where harm reduction services were available, they were overwhelmingly gender-blind and did not integrate sexual and reproductive health services, leaving women underserved.122

Извор: WUNRN – 21.09.2023