In a statement released today, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.N. General Assembly convened in a Special Session on drugs to take steps to reduce human rights abuses committted in the course of drug control efforts.
"Anti-drug efforts in many countries include human rights violations--from egregiously harsh punishments, including the death penalty, to abusive law enforcement tacitcs to distorted trial procedures in which basic precepts of justice are turned upside down," states Jamie Fellner, Human Rights Watch associate counsel. "The international community should not permit a de facto exception to international human rights law."
