Cambodia’s newly launched war on drugs is in full swing, with nearly 3,000 people arrested in the campaign’s first month of crime-busting. Authorities claim they have confiscated over 9kg of illegal drugs in busts on dealers and users, with more than half the haul being crystal methamphetamine, one of the country’s most prevalent and abused narcotics.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government announced the campaign in December shortly after a state visit by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has made global waves through his violent execution of an anti-drugs drive that has seen more than 7,000 deaths.

Cambodian officials have said their campaign was launched in response to a nearly 30% rise in the number of documented drug addicts last year, according to official data.

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In Duterte’s footsteps, Hun Sen launches a drug war

Peru's government says it will present to the opposition-dominated legislature a plan to legalize the medical use of marijuana "for the treatment of serious and terminal illnesses."

President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's administration said Wednesday the plan was developed after police raided a house in a Lima neighborhood where a group of parents grew marijuana to make oil for treating their children suffering from epilepsy and other diseases.

Officials say that trafficking and use of marijuana for other purposes would remain a crime under the proposal.

Aida Farfan belongs to the parent group that was raising marijuana and said it has more than 80 members whose sick children benefited from the medicinal properties of marijuana. She says the group petitioned lawmakers for years trying to get those uses legalized.

Peru's government proposes to legalise medicinal cannabis

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) today welcomed the indefinite suspension of the hearings on the death penalty bills by the Philippine Senate’s Committee on Justice and Human Rights. The Committee’s Chairman, Senator Richard Gordon, indicated the suspension was needed until the Department of Justice is able to submit its opinion on the Philippines’ obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). That instrument requires the Philippines to maintain its abolition.

On 7 February 2017, the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights held its first hearing on the proposed measure reintroducing the death penalty for illegal drugs and other crimes. A similar bill to restore the death penalty is also currently being debated in plenary at the House of Representatives.

At the Senate hearing, senators opposing the proposed measure recalled that the Philippines is a State Party to the Second Optional Protocol, and thus, it is obliged not to execute any person within its jurisdiction. Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs the Committee, thereafter, called for the indefinite suspension of the hearings on this matter until there could be clarity on the ramifications on the Philippines if it breaches its obligations under the Second Optional Protocol.

“Abolitionist States may not return to the use of the death penalty generally under the ICCPR, and States that become party to the Second Optional Protocol assume very specific obligations to that effect,” said Emerlynne Gil, ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser for Southeast Asia. “There really is no inconsistency between the Second Optional Protocol and the Philippine Constitution.”

“As a general rule, the Philippine Constitution prohibits the death penalty except for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes,” Gil said. “But in no way does it mandate that the death penalty be put into effect.”

By ratifying the Second Optional Protocol, the Philippines has voluntarily chosen to be bound by an international obligation not to impose the death penalty—which it might otherwise have had the option to do under the Constitution. As the ICJ explains in its memorandum on this issue, this is the very essence of treaty making.

“To announce long after ratification that a treaty is inconsistent with the Constitution and so not to be treated as binding, would call into question virtually every treaty to which Philippines is a party. This would contradict the most basic foundations of the international legal system and would lead other countries to view the Philippines as virtually incapable of making a reliable international legal agreement,” Gil emphasized.

The ICJ emphasized that if the Philippines brings back the death penalty into its domestic laws, it would also be in violation of its obligations under the ICCPR, which effectively prohibits States from bringing back the death penalty once it has been abolished in domestic laws.

The Philippines cannot withdraw from Second Optional Protocol, which has no denunciation or withdrawal clause. The UN Human Rights Committee has explained that a denunciation clause was deliberately omitted because once the people are accorded the protection of the rights under the Second Optional Protocol, they shall not be deprived of such protection.

Ms. Emerlynne Gil, ICJ’s Senior International Legal Adviser, tel. no. +66 840923575 OR email: emerlynne.gil@icj.org

Philippines: Legislators should permanently end consideration of new death  penalty proposals

Between March and October 2016, Doctors of the World/Médecins du Monde (MdM) organized a series of trainings on Hepatitis C intended for its Harm Reduction international teams and partners with a focus on people who use drugs.

Four trainings were held in Hanoi (Vietnam), Myitkyina (Myanmar), Nairobi (Kenya) and Dar Es Salam (Tanzania), involving care providers, social workers and peer educators working with MdM and its partners.

These trainings aimed at strengthening participants’ knowledge and capacities not only to improve the quality of hepatitis C prevention and screening services in Harm Reduction programs but also to further develop their expertise and thus boost advocacy for a universal access to hepatitis C prevention and treatment.

Click here for the presentations and training tools

Click here for pedagogical videos on HCV test counselling

Training series: Hepatitis C and harm reduction for people who use drugs

Under the Bridging the Gaps 2 programme, Mainline aspires to support harm reduction services in Tanzania. To fully understand the opportunities, needs and socio-political circumstances, Mainline organised two scoping visits in 2016. The situation for people who use drugs in the United Republic of Tanzania is delicate.

With the election of a new president in July 2016, many established guidelines for working with key populations and NGOs are being revisited and revised. The approved new guidelines around key populations and HIV should be made public by the beginning of 2017. The revisions are causing some uncertainty because it’s unclear, for example, whether the guidelines around Needles and Syringe Programmes (NSP) might be altered.

Tanzania has fulfilled a leading role in the East African region by introducing an exceptionally successful harm reduction programme – including a strong NSP component and methadone distribution in Dar es Salaam. However, the continuation of this great work is not certain as recent incidents show. For example, the new president, since taking office, has outlawed lubricants in an effort to discourage men from having sex with men. It is very possible that similar decisions will be made where it concerns service delivery for people who use drugs.

Harm reduction in Tanzania: a delicate balance

In South Africa, extensive violence and injustices against People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) occur on a daily basis. Moreover, access to a fair trial or legal support is rare for this target group. Mainline connected their South African partners to PKNI from Indonesia. This network of PWUD has organised paralegal support via their peer networks.

When someone is arrested for drug charges, PKNI makes sure they get the information and legal support they need. They often manage to avoid prison sentences. As part of Mainlines’ south-south exchange programme, PKNI provided paralegal training for the PWUD community in South Africa.

The training took place in December 2016. Participants were from the PWUD community in South Africa who have united in the network of Drug Users of Cape Town (DUCT) and the Drug Users of Gauteng (DUG).

During the training, knowledge and experience were transferred by the facilitators from Indonesia. Their expertise was combined with the expertise of a South African lawyer. This ensured a good connection with the local legal context.

Indonesia-South Africa exchange: Paralegal (peer) support

The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and the West Africa Drug Policy Network (WADPN), with support from Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), are inviting proposals for country-specific research on the impact of drug trafficking, production, and consumption on democracy, governance, and development in West Africa.

The targeted countries are Benin, Ghana and Senegal. This country-specific research initiative is driven by a critical need to gather evidence of the impact of drugs on governance, democracy, and development in order to strengthen civil society advocacy efforts to intensify drug policy reform processes in West Africa.

Call for research proposals: “The impact of drug trafficking, production and consumption on democracy, governance and development"

UK drug related death rates are among the highest in Europe, and are increasing dramatically - reaching record levels for three years in a row. Supervised Injection Facilities (SIFs) significantly reduce: fatal overdoses and needle sharing that can lead to infections, including HIV and hepatitis; high risk public injecting; and discarded needles, while increasing numbers entering treatment.

SIFs (or colloquially ‘fix rooms’ or ‘shooting galleries’) are legally sanctioned facilities where people can inject their own pre-obtained drugs, under medical supervision. Many also allow smoking of drugs (including heroin and crack cocaine), and so are called ‘drug consumption rooms’. They can be in permanent clinics, mobile ambulance style units or temporary structures. They typically provide people who use drugs with:

a hygienic space to use drugs under medical supervision that they have bought illicitly

primary medical care, and emergency care in the event of overdose

counselling services and referral to social, health-care and treatment services

The UK government’s official advisers - the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) - supports the setting up of supervised injection facilities. SIFs complement and offer a gateway to drug treatment.

Supervised injection facilities: Saving lives, making communities safer

Thailand has introduced a harm reduction programme to combat national drug issues after punitive measures failed to stop people suffering from drug-related problems.

The country declared a war on drugs more than 10 years ago which focused on corrective policy including legal measures, penalties and crackdowns.

The so-called "war" was never won, however, as the number of prisoners getting caught abusing drugs has not dropped.

Thai Department turns to methadone to fight opiate addiction

This Call for Proposals seeks to provide funding support to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) including Community Based Organisations (CBOs) working in the area of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support among people who inject drugs and people in prisons whose projects are aimed at building capacity of national partners. Community-based organisations are particularly encouraged to apply as the Call is aimed at helping to ensure that people who use drugs and people in prison will receive higher quality HIV services that are better tailored to their needs.

The Grant funding under this Call for Proposals shall be provided under the following categories:

: Building capacity of the civil society organizations, in particular community-based organisations, in implementation of HIV services and programs

: Building capacity of the civil society organizations, in particular community-based organisations, in results-based program management and leadership

: Building capacity of the civil society organizations, in particular community-based organisations, in developing sustainable partnerships with government stakeholders and local partners

UNODC call for grant proposals: ''Empowered communities, stronger HIV response''

With an additional 1,749 arrests so far this month, Cambodia’s anti-drug crackdown, which began on January 1, has already yielded nearly half as many drug-related arrests as there were in all of 2016.

Between January 1 and February 19, “we arrested 4,177 people, including drug users, and 1,917 drug traffickers,” Meas Vyrith, deputy secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said yesterday.

Last month, authorities arrested 2,428 people, 1,243 of whom were users, he added. Last year, Vyrith said, Cambodian authorities made 9,933 drug-related arrests.

Cambodia: Arrests soar under drug war compared to 2016

In 2014, 51% of new HIV infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) were among people who use drugs (PWUD).

The need for affordable sterile equipment and condoms is clear. What is also important is – a favourable environment to ensure that those in need have access to prevention and treatment services. An EHRN project implemented with the Eurasian Network of People who Use Drugs (ENPUD) and other partners aims at ensuring this through practical activities, which involve community representatives. Its overall goal is to lower the HIV transmission among people who use drugs by promoting harm reduction, human rights and supportive policy environments.

The project covers eight EHRN members’ countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Russia. The project complements the existing Street Lawyers program in some of the countries.

This video showcases the outreach work of "street lawyers", who provide legal advice to people who use drugs to protect against, and document, human rights violations in Eurasia. 

The three-year project is financed by the Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund.

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