Conectas and INNPD has denounced Brazil´s drug policy to the UN

In a session of the Human Rights Council on Friday (2), Brazilian organisations criticised the “criminalizing and violent” model used to control drugs in the country

Foto: Akira Onuma/ Susipe FOTO: AKIRA ONUMA/SUSIPE DATA: 15.01.2019 BELÁM - PARÁ

On Friday (2), Conectas and INNPD (Black Initiative for a New Drug Policy) presented a denouncement against Brazil at the 47th session of the United Nations HRC (Human Rights Council), regarding the country´s policy on drug control.  

The organisations drew attention to the risks of actions being taken based on a “policy of abstinence for drug users, depleting community services, undermining universal access to public health, while investing heavily in private treatment centres which are not suitably monitored.” The denouncement goes on to say that “people are being sent to these places under pressure from the police.”

In another extract from the speech it is stressed that “the use of drugs is still a crime in the country and that the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has indefinitely postponed analysis of the case.” This was a reference to the discussion on decriminalisation that started in 2015, in the STF, but was stayed at the request of Minister Teori Zavascki, who died in 2017.

“Strengthening a violent, criminalizing model to control drug use reinforces the mechanisms for killing as a state policy in Brazil, where an average 50,000 deaths have been recorded every year for over a decade with no reduction in the figures relating to violence during the pandemic.” It says in another part of the oral statement presented by Eduardo Ribeiro, from INNPD, who represented the organisations at the UN. 

Watch the denouncement at the UN Human Rights Council in full here: