Human Rights and Drug Control

Saul Takahashi teaches human rights law at Aoyama Gakuin University, in Tokyo. His previous positions include Refugee Officer at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, Drug Control Officer at the Secretariat of the International Narcotics Control Board, and Deputy Head of Office in Occupied Palestine for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has authored numerous publications in English and Japanese.

1. Introduction
I. Some Terminology Issues—Legalisation, Decriminalisation, and Depenalisation
II. Use/Abuse/Consumption
2. Legal Standards and Regimes
I. The International Drug Control Regime
The 1988 Convention and Criminalisation
The Treaty Monitoring Regime of International Drug Control
The Enforcement Powers of INCB
INCB, UNODC, and Human Rights
II. Human Rights
The International Human Rights Regime
Human Rights Treaty Bodies and INCB
Charter-Based Bodies—The Human Rights Council
The Offi ce of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR)
III. Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
3. UNGASS and Developments in Latin America
I. UNGASS
II. Latin America: Regional Developments
III. Latin America: Developments at the National Level
Bolivia
Uruguay
4. Drug Control: Violating Human Rights?
I. At First, There Was ‘Harm Reduction’
Substitution Treatment
Injection Rooms
Conclusion on Harm Reduction
II. Human Rights as a Tool
Death Penalty
Law Enforcement and the Excessive Use of Force
Arbitrary Detention, Ill-Treatment and Forced Labour
Arbitrary Detention and the International Drug Control Conventions
III. Persons who Abuse Drugs as a ‘Vulnerable Group’
IV. Militarisation of Drug Law Enforcement
Organised Crime
Pain Relief and Legalisation of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan
Pain Relief Globally
5. Mandated Treatment and Drug Courts
I. Portugal
6. The ‘Right to Abuse Drugs’
Afterword: Views of the Author