W.F.A.D: Open Letter to Reassure Human Rights are being adhered to in a fast-changing environment – Pleading for safety, health, well-being, and dignity

Excerpt: It is also imperative that the responsibility and capacity of all human beings is fortified in developing and protecting the right to best-practice health care and is not enabled, equipped, or empowered to undermine good, physical, and psycho-social health. Thus, it is important to note that the human right to freedom is strengthened by focusing on strengthening prevention, ensuring access to treatment, and promote recovery. Hence, we call upon the Member States to uphold and promoting prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery services with a comprehensive, integrated, inclusive, evidence-based, and balanced approach.

Following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the widely adopted Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledge and further emphasise that “all human beings [should be able to] fulfil their potential in dignity and equality in a healthy environment”, with a particular focus on allowing children and youth to flourish into healthy adulthood. With the increase in drug use, especially among the younger generation, it is significantly important to adhere to the Human Rights of the young person. Especially children should be offered the necessary protection to live a healthy and substance-free life. The need for prevention, protection, and provision of health care is reiterated in the two-above mentioned conventions. The ratification of Article 33 in the Convention on the Rights of the Child highlights the need to protect children from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and prevent children from being used for the illicit production or trafficking of illicit substances. Besides this, Article 3.5 in the Sustainable Development Goals promotes the need to strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance use. Therefore, we urge the UNODC to continue to promote evidence-based prevention, access to treatment, and recovery, while encouraging monitoring and evaluation with disaggregated data by gender.

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