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The International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement warned on Thursday that harsh drug laws and policies continue to play a role in systemic racism against “Africans and people of African descent around the world.” They advocate a shift to human rights and public health approaches.
The official report concluded that drug control systems are fundamentally infused with racial discrimination. The experts summarize these findings in the conclusion, writing:
The recommended reforms are intended to go beyond individual, isolated changes. Rather, the Expert Mechanism emphasized that there is a need for a broader rethinking of the gaps in current approaches. This will require prioritizing key values like human rights, racial justice, and public health. These approaches have been discussed by organizations like Amnesty International, recognizing possible alternatives that focus on healthcare, community support, and getting rid of penalties like incarceration for those who use drugs. Reforming drug policies means maintaining and expanding access to support, and ensuring that the disproportionate incarceration of marginalized groups does not continue.
The report identifies the racial-justice concerns as part of the “continuing influence of the so-called ‘war on drugs.’” Former US President Richard Nixon officially declared the “War on Drugs” on June 17, 1971, leading to various policies and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
While this “war on drugs” sentiment originated in the US, these types of policies proliferated and now persist in many other countries, such as Canada and the Philippines.The Expert Mechanism’s findings are supported by extensive research from other organizations. The Equal Justice Initiative has explored racial disparities in the 1980s campaign against crack cocaine, which they say continue today. Human Rights Watch has long documented the human rights consequences of drug policies. Other bodies of the UN have also found that people of African descent are more likely to be “stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, and harshly sentenced for drug crimes.” These are only a few examples of decades of work on this topic.
The Expert Mechanism is an independent body established in 2021. The body gets its mandate from UN Human Rights Council resolutions 47/21 and 56/13, which detail various objectives related to “further transformative change for racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement globally.”
These findings will be presented to the Human Rights Council on September 29, 2026, during its 63rd session.
The post UN Expert Mechanism calls for racial justice reform of drug laws to address systemic discrimination appeared first on JURIST - News.
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The official report concluded that drug control systems are fundamentally infused with racial discrimination. The experts summarize these findings in the conclusion, writing:
The differential treatment the Expert Mechanism found includes racial profiling across all stages of the criminal process – questioning, arrests, prosecutions, sentencing, detention, and the consequences faced after being convicted. In general, there is evidence of over-policing of Black communities, leading to greater rates of arrest.
The recommended reforms are intended to go beyond individual, isolated changes. Rather, the Expert Mechanism emphasized that there is a need for a broader rethinking of the gaps in current approaches. This will require prioritizing key values like human rights, racial justice, and public health. These approaches have been discussed by organizations like Amnesty International, recognizing possible alternatives that focus on healthcare, community support, and getting rid of penalties like incarceration for those who use drugs. Reforming drug policies means maintaining and expanding access to support, and ensuring that the disproportionate incarceration of marginalized groups does not continue.
The report identifies the racial-justice concerns as part of the “continuing influence of the so-called ‘war on drugs.’” Former US President Richard Nixon officially declared the “War on Drugs” on June 17, 1971, leading to various policies and the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
While this “war on drugs” sentiment originated in the US, these types of policies proliferated and now persist in many other countries, such as Canada and the Philippines.The Expert Mechanism’s findings are supported by extensive research from other organizations. The Equal Justice Initiative has explored racial disparities in the 1980s campaign against crack cocaine, which they say continue today. Human Rights Watch has long documented the human rights consequences of drug policies. Other bodies of the UN have also found that people of African descent are more likely to be “stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, and harshly sentenced for drug crimes.” These are only a few examples of decades of work on this topic.
The Expert Mechanism is an independent body established in 2021. The body gets its mandate from UN Human Rights Council resolutions 47/21 and 56/13, which detail various objectives related to “further transformative change for racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement globally.”
These findings will be presented to the Human Rights Council on September 29, 2026, during its 63rd session.
The post UN Expert Mechanism calls for racial justice reform of drug laws to address systemic discrimination appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.