Decades of international drug control, through The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, The Convention on Psychotropic Substances 1971 and UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988 has introduced the notion of “War on Drugs” across the globe. This phenomenon has resurrected negative consequences to society. A high number of HIV/AIDS and Hep-C, TB cases are recorded among drug users. The prohibitionist or criminalisation approach has failed to confront the issues of health and human rights protection for people who use drugs and their families. Drug use and possession are disproportionately sentenced, prisons are overcrowded, there are countless known and unknown torture cases against drug users, the death penalty for drug mules and arbitrary arrest and detention. These are just a few examples of how the War on Drugs has impacted the societies, including in Indonesia. Therefore, international societies, including United Nations and some States have responded to this challenging situation by searching for an alternative to criminalisation. One of the ways to reduce human rights abuses against people who use drugs is by implementing a decriminalisation approach.
A decriminalization approach attempts to balance between law enforcement and the right to health. The experiences of several countries demonstrate that decriminalisation is not a new approach and that, to some extent, does not aim to eliminate drugs in illicit market or stop all drug use, rather, it tries to reduce harm, health problems and human rights abuses. However, decriminalisation alone is not enough to afford the human rights protection that is required. Against this backdrop, decriminalisation must be implemented through the framework of human rights standards and principles because the absence of human rights in the implementation of decriminalisation will lead to new forms of human rights violations, such as forced treatment, mandatory reporting and arbitrary rehabilitation. The Indonesian government is willing to begin implementing the decriminalisation approach, however, the challenges still remain in Indonesian law, policies and structures. There is an urgent need to establish decriminalization within a human rights framework for people who use drugs.
This research seeks to investigate the impact of drug control regimes by focusing on the War on Drugs approach and it can be reformed through a human rights perspective. Furthermore, the steps needed to adopt human rights protections for drug users through the decriminalisation approach are considered. This research uses a qualitative method, with the data collected through library research. It involves identifying and analysing existing publications on decriminalisation and drug law and policy at an international, national and regional level. |