African Law Foundation (AFRILAW) is non-profit and non-governmental development law organization with the corporate headquarters at Enugu, Enugu State of Nigeria. AFRILAW was founded in July, 2012 after its Founder participated in the African Regional Conference on Community-Based Paralegal Programme held in Kampala, Uganda and organized by the Global Rights Uganda and Namati: Innovations for Legal Empowerment, USA in 2012. AFRILAW is registered with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as a non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee with Registration Number RC 1150775. As a legal based organization, AFRILAW is governed by Board of Directors with support from the Advisory Board made of reputable legal professionals. The Management Team is headed by the Chief Executive Officer. Our programmes, activities and services are carried out by our dedicated legal and human rights professionals and other experts including Community Paralegals and crop of volunteers from legal and human rights fraternities as our Law Fellows. Our Vision is a just world, developed and prosperous Africa, and our Mission is to build a better African society through the rule of law, justice and sustainable development. Our work and services include advancing respect for the rule of law, human rights and justice for all, promoting inclusive and sustainable social and economic development and growth, promoting peace and security, transparency, accountability and democratic governance, improving environmental sustainability and promote climatic justice, and building partnership and collaboration for sustainable development. Our Strategies include Policy Advocacy and Capacity Building, Legal Aid and Paralegal Services, Campaigns and Awareness-raising, Community Development and Mobilization, Research and Documentation, Consulting and Technical Services, Partnership and Network Building and Coordination.

La Fundación Africana sobre el Derecho (AFRILAW) es una organización sin fines de lucro y no gubernamental que promueve el estado de derecho, los derechos humanos y la justicia para todos, la transparencia y gobernabilidad democrática, la sostenibilidad ambiental y la justicia climática, y el desarrollo sostenible.

African Law Foundation (AFRILAW) est une organisation à but non lucratif et non gouvernementale qui cherche à faire progresser le respect de l'état de droit, des droits de l'homme et de la justice pour tous, en promouvant un développement et une croissance économiques et sociaux inclusifs et durables.

African Law Foundation (AFRILAW)

El IDPC y AFRILAW presentan nuevas pruebas sobre la violencia física y mental a la que se enfrentan las personas que usan drogas en Nigeria, tanto a manos de la policía como en los centros de tratamiento. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

This briefing paper by IDPC and the African Law Foundation (AFRILAW) presents new evidence on the physical and mental violence faced by people who use drugs in Nigeria, both at the hands of law enforcement agents and in drug treatment centres.

Drawing on desk research and on a survey of 79 people who use drugs and other stakeholders in Nigeria, the papers shows that in Nigeria people who use drugs are routinely subject to physical, mental and sexual violence, sometimes meeting the definition of torture or ill-treatment under international law.

Many respondents highlighted the gendered aspect of these forms of torture and ill-treatment, while others pointed to a disproportionate impact on those marginalized on the basis of poverty or status.

Although the occurrence of violence is widespread and well known, only one survey respondent brought a formal complaint, and none achieved any form of compensation or redress.

The report concludes with a series of recommendations on how to prevent and provide redress for the forms of torture and ill-treatment documented in this report. We emphasise the need to reform laws and policies that criminalise people who use drugs, and to ensure access to voluntary, evidence-based, and rights-based drug treatment and harm reduction services.

Tortura y malos tratos contra las personas que usan drogas en Nigeria

Para reducir la violencia y daños infligidos por las fuerzas del orden contra personas que consumen drogas, los gobiernos deben comprometerse con la descriminalización, la reducción de daños y la eliminación del estigma. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Oral statement on ending the violence of law enforcement on people who use drugs

Statement delivered on 10 March 2022 by the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) and AfriLaw

This statement is delivered on behalf of the International Drug Policy Consortium and the African Law Foundation.

Research we carried out in September 2021 reveals that people who use drugs in Nigeria are routinely subject to horrifying acts of physical, mental and sexual violence at hands of law enforcement agencies.

Also we found a great number of abuses in drug rehab centres, where people who use drugs are detained against their will, and torture is delivered under the guise of discipline and healing. Accountability and remedy for these violations are extremely rare.

In all cases, violence and abuses are disproportionately inflicted on people who are marginalised on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or drug use.

In order to reduce the extent of torture against people who use drugs, States must establish robust mechanisms to oversee the actions of law enforcement agencies, and of entities that provide drug rehabilitation.

States must also take immediate action to reverse the dehumanisation and marginalisation of people who use drugs, which has been brought about by the war on drugs.

To do so, we call on all governments to take three urgent steps. First, decriminalise drug use and drug possession for personal use. Two, establish evidence-based and rights-based drug treatment and harm reduction services that are always voluntary. Three, take action to remove the stigma and discrimination experienced by people who use drugs in their daily lives. It is only through these actions that we will begin to address torture and ill-treatment against people who use drugs.

Declaración en el Diálogo Interactivo con Relator Especial de la ONU sobre Tortura – 49a sesión del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de la ONU

89 ONG subrayan la necesidad de abordar los daños de las políticas de drogas represivas que socavan los derechos humanos. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

To: Ms Ghada Waly, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Subject: Open letter on UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day 2021

We urge you to mark International Human Rights Day 2021 by calling on Member States to change drug policies and practices that violate human rights and perpetuate inequality and discrimination.

We are writing to you ahead of International Human Rights Day 2021, which will take place on the 10th December amidst escalating global demands for the reform of laws and practices that entrench racial discrimination and social inequality, including drug policies. Last year, IDPC – together with dozens of other civil society and community organisations – called on you to issue a statement on International Human Rights Day urging Member States to change drug laws and practices that undermine health and human rights. A year later, we ask you to seize this day as an opportunity to show UNODC´s alignment with other UN entities in calling for an end to drug policies and practices that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, and violate human rights.

For decades, punitive drug policies have driven widespread human rights abuses, as has been amply documented by the UN. These include the death penalty for drug offences; extrajudicial killings; arbitrary detention, often masquerading as ‘rehabilitation’; the denial of access to life-saving harm reduction services; widespread barriers to accessing controlled medicines for pain relief; the criminalisation of people who use drugs, subsistence farmers and others groups in situations of vulnerability; corporal punishment; and mass incarceration. In all of these cases, draconian drug policies have disproportionately affected people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, thus entrenching inequality and discrimination.

Along 2021, a broad range of UN entities called on Member States to reform drug policies with discriminatory outcomes. In June 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a landmark study on arbitrary detention and drug polices, which found that ´

the war on drugs may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people. Its impact is often greatest on those who are poor, but also frequently overlaps with discrimination in law enforcement directed at vulnerable groups

´. At the same time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a new ‘Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality´, highlighting that ´

The discriminatory application of criminal law must be tackled at every stage, including by reforming drug-related policies

´. The High Commissioner´s proposal led to Human Rights Council Resolution 47/21, which contains key commitments to uproot systemic racism in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, adopted in June 2021, also showcased the international community´s commitment to ending inequalities as a step towards ending AIDS. Lastly, the new UN system Common Position on Incarceration, led by UNODC in partnership with other UN entities, notes ‘

the overrepresentation of minority and marginalized groups among prisoners, many of whom are charged with petty and nonviolent offences

support reform efforts aimed at ensuring proportionate and individualized sentencing and alternatives to conviction or punishment in appropriate cases, including for minor drug-related offences

These various commitments emerging across the United Nations are aligned with the 2018 Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drug-related matters, which makes clear that ‘

should be designed and implemented by States in accordance with their human rights obligations

’, and commits all UN agencies, including UNODC, to support drug policies ‘

that put people, health, and human rights at the centre

Similar human rights concerns have been highlighted in the just-released Global Drug Policy Index, which measures and ranks the national drug policies of 30 countries according to how well they align with the UN system Common Position on Drugs and its Task Team report of March 2019.

The theme of the 2021 International Human Rights Day is ‘Equality: Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights’, and is aimed at ´

addressing and finding solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in societies

´. As such, it presents a crucial opportunity for UNODC to align itself with other UN entities in calling for the end of policies that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, while highlighting its commitment to the promotion of human rights, in line with the UN system Common Positions.

It is in this context that we urge you to issue a strong statement on International Human Rights Day, calling on states to change the drug laws, policies and practices that violate health and human rights, and entrench inequality. To be credible, such a statement should explicitly acknowledge the disproportionate impact of drug laws and drug control on people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, and urge Member States to:

Abolish the death penalty in all circumstances. Imposing capital punishment for drug offences has been found to be contrary to international human rights law by the Human Rights Committee, and the Human Rights Council.

Put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings committed in the name of drug control, as has been repeatedly called for by the Human Rights Council and UN human rights experts.

Permanently close compulsory drug detention centres, including those that masquerade as ‘rehabilitation’, and implement voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services, as recently called for by sixteen UN agencies, including UNODC.

Stress the urgent need to provide accessible, affordable, and adequately funded harm reduction services in community and closed settings, to fulfil the right to health and the right to life of people who use drugs, as demanded by several UN human rights bodies and experts. This is also central to UNODC’s core role as lead UNAIDS co-sponsor regarding prisons and HIV amongst people who use drugs.

Take immediate measures to address prison overcrowding, as already recommended by UNODC and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting alternatives to incarceration, and ensuring proportionate sentencing for all drug offences, including by taking into account mitigating factors – in line with the basic principle that prisons should only be used as a last resort in all circumstances.

Ensure that people who use drugs are not subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment – whether in state custody or public or private drug services. While under detention, people with a drug dependence or health problems associated with their drug use must be offered evidence-based treatment, harm reduction and other drug services on a strictly voluntary basis.

Promote the end of all punishment for drug use, and drug possession and cultivation for personal use, as permitted within the three drug control conventions. Such policy shifts will help to end the stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion faced by people who use drugs, and to facilitate access to health and social services, as called for by the UN system Common Position, UNAIDS, and UN human rights bodies.

Make sure that drug policies incorporate a gender-sensitive perspective. This should be done by tailoring drug services to the specific needs of women, and by ensuring that criminal laws take into account the circumstances of women involved in drug offences, as most of them come from backgrounds of poverty, marginalisation, and oppression.

Clearly outline the ways in which UNODC will work to achieve these changes, and the measures being taken to ensure that human rights are effectively embedded as a core strand for all of the Office’s work.

As the lead UN agency in drug-related matters, UNODC has the responsibility to promote drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in a way that is consistent with the standards developed by the UN system, and in line with the commitments set in the UN system Common Positions on drugs and on incarceration. A strong statement in the forthcoming International Human Rights Day would be an important and welcome step to signal UNODC’s unequivocal commitment.

We look forward to discussing these concerns and recommendations with you.

Las ONG instan a la Directora Ejecutiva de la ONUDD a celebrar el Día de los Derechos Humanos con un llamamiento a la reforma de las políticas de drogas que perpetúan las desigualdades

ICASA 2021 es una gran oportunidad para impulsar la respuesta al VIH centrando la importancia para personas que consumen drogas de respuestas a la epidemia con acciones para reducción de daños que afirmen sus derechos. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

The International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) is the headline conference in the region, and an important opportunity to advance the HIV response. However, people who use drugs and the harm reduction community have been consistently marginalised and under-represented at these events.

Despite the 2019 conference (in Kigali, Rwanda) having more than 8,500 delegates and an objective to “Rethink gender norms, human rights-based approaches and inclusion towards equitable and accessible HIV and AIDS services including key populations”, there was once again very little focus on harm reduction, and poor visibility for people who inject drugs. This crucial aspect of the HIV response was restricted to only two satellite events and around five poster presentations.

We are calling on ICASA to proactively address this imbalance, starting with preparations for the 2021 conference.

Proposed Objective: To raise the profile of evidence-based harm reduction programs and promote integrated rights-based and stigma free interventions and policies for Africans who use drugs.

It is estimated that there may be as many as 2 million people who inject drugs in Africa, of whom more than 11 percent are living with HIV. Yet services remain woefully unavailable, and only a few African countries have adopted this approach – most often with external funding, and through NGOs rather than state provision. According to UNAIDS, people who inject drugs account for 8 percent of all new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 37 percent of all new infections in the Middle East and North Africa. This is a population that cannot be overlooked if we are to end AIDS in Africa.

Furthermore, the conference in Uganda is an opportune moment for this conversation – the host country itself has begun to embrace the harm reduction approach in response to its own domestic drug use challenges.

African Law Foundation (AFRILAW)

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Más de 60 ONG en África invocan a ICASA 2021 centrar la importancia de la reducción de daños en la respuesta al VIH