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Peer Reviewed
Objective
Support for a human rights framework for drug policy has been growing for some years. This year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published a chapter in the World Drug Report focussed on the right to health. In this paper, attention is drawn to the conceptualisation of the right to health for people who use drugs (PWUD).
Findings/Key points
Three components of a right to health against the current international drug control regime are considered. While one essential element is access to appropriate, high quality, and affordable healthcare, this needs to occur hand-in-hand with two other central components of the right to health – the right to conditions that promote health and the right to meaningful participation in healthcare decisions and in health policy.
It is argued that duties to respect, protect and provide the right to health for PWUD accrue through being a signatory to the drug conventions. Given that there does not appear to be international appetite to abandon the current treaties, and notwithstanding the strong impression that they reinforce a criminalisation approach to PWUD, the work herein may afford another avenue for effective advocacy about the right to health.
