UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC Press conference: Special Rapporteur on the right to health

Good morning, everyone.

And thank you for joining us at this press conference by Doctor Tang

Moog,

who is the UN special rapporteur on the right to help.

Uh, Doctor Mofokeng

is a medical doctor with expertise advocating for universal health access,

HIV care, youth friendly services and family planning.

Uh,

we'll begin as usual with opening remarks by the

SR and then open the floor for questions.

With that, I give the flow to the special rapporteur.

Thank you very much. Um, dear colleagues for joining this press conference at

a time where it's a great honour for me to have

presented my fourth thematic report to the Human Rights Council,

which focuses on drug use, harm reduction and the right to health.

And I want to particularly thank all of

the stakeholders for the contributions that have been received

in the drafting of this report. Greatly appreciated indeed.

And while the hour is already late

with nothing else left to say or do with the mandate

given to me by this Council on the right to health,

I continue to share in the collective rage and fury as we watch day after day

horrific genocidal acts unfolding and documented in real time.

And in this moment I continue to bear witness to many people around the world

who to another crushing weight of imperialism and colonial oppression.

No, neither

peace nor respite.

And I reiterate my call.

And I remain optimistic that the world

leaders will summon all the necessary political,

economic and diplomatic force

to bring an end to all wars around the world and specifically in urgencies.

Fires were desperately needed

in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Now focusing back on the report on drugs.

Uh, we know that drugs have been a part of human history for thousands of years,

whether for medical healing,

for religious and cultural ceremonies or as a commodity for pleasure.

And it is crucial to distinguish between drug use and drug use disorders.

And drug use is not a medical condition,

and the majority of people who use drugs do not have a dependency problem

and do not require medical treatment or intervention.

Drug use disorders, on the other hand, including drug dependency,

are a medical condition

and thus require dignified, appropriate quality, support

and treatment.

Together, the social, political, commercial and legal determinants of health

can recreate and reinforce health disparities.

With that in mind, I focus on how the availability, accessibility, acceptability

and quality of care

is therefore affected

by punitive approaches to drug use.

I explore how drug control compounds and disproportionately

affect certain rights and individuals,

and call on all of us to continue to examine the underlying power structures

that perpetuate systems of disadvantage

that have outlived formal colonialism

that continue to shape the underlying dynamics of both

drug use and how member states address it,

focusing a bit on state obligations under the right to health.

States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil human rights

in the context of drug use. The obligation to respect requires that states

not engage in any conduct that can result in drug use, related morbidity

or mortality.

This includes refraining from marketing unsafe

drugs or from applying coercive medical treatments

as well as, of course, for the treatment of mental illness.

The obligation to protect requires states to, among other actions,

adopt legislation

or take other measures ensuring equal access to health care

and health related services provided by third parties as well.

It's important that states remember their their

obligation to protect and ensure that scientific knowledge

and technologies

and their applications,

including evidence based interventions to prevent and treat drug dependence

in addition to related diseases

are available

and accessible without discrimination both in law and in practise,

and states have an obligation to implement evidence-based

interventions to minimise adverse health

outcomes, risks and harms associated with drug use.

The obligation on states to fulfil requires them, for instance,

to promote the right to health by undertaking actions that create,

maintain and restore health of the population.

This obligation includes fostering the recognition

of factors favouring positive health results,

such as research and the provision of information

that ensures that health care providers are trained to recognise

and respond with culturally acceptable services

to very specific needs

of marginalised groups and those who remain vulnerable.

And while these obligations may be

realised progressively due to resource constraints,

we must divest from the war on drugs

because it is effectively a war on people,

and divesting from a war on drugs will allow

us to have the innovation and the space to creatively

forge a way forward where we place the

dignity of people at the centre of our responses

and reinvest all of those important

resources and underlying determinants of health.

It's also important to understand the power asymmetries of major corporations

and their influence on policy making

in many in many jurisdictions around the world.

Decriminalisation of drug use

is the removal of criminal penalties for drug offences,

and it is a way of reducing negative health

impacts of punitive drug policies on the right to health.

And we have evidence from jurisdictions

that have taken a decriminalisation approach,

demonstrating that adopting less punitive policies do not result

in increase in drug use or drug related harms or any other crimes.

Divesting from

the ill advised war on drugs

frees up these resources to also reinvest in

public health that is grounded in human rights.

That supports and is based on the best available scientific evidence,

and also understands how supporting health care workers

is important to realising the right to health.

Now harm reduction as an approach

is part of

what is available to us in terms of policy tools.

It includes a wide range of policies, but also programmes

and practises

that are aimed at minimising negative health but also social

and legal impacts associated with drug use and drug laws and policies.

Harm reduction measures work best when they are available

to people in their context and their circumstances,

and it is important that they are modified and

tailored to the intersecting needs of those particular individuals

there may. In the report,

I've highlighted numerous examples, um,

non exhaustive lists of what harm reduction practical measures have been,

and I've also provided examples of good practises

coming from a number of member states.

Some of these measures include needle and syringe programmes,

drug checking,

overdose prevention and reversal,

housing and employment and education,

as well as, of course, focusing on underlying determinants of health

opiate agonist therapy,

as well as drug consumption rooms and supervised injection facilities.

It is important that at the domestic and international

levels to note that funding for harm reduction is inadequate

and it's actually shrinking.

And so we ought to think about what a harm reduction approach

within a human rights framework looks like

that needs to be sustainable, but also structural, because that will require

not just a paradigm shift,

but much resourcing

and in closing. I just wanna also draw your attention

to the conclusions and recommendations contained in

my report which are four pages long.

These are designed to give member states

at various levels of their own processes nationally

on policy level,

on legislative reform,

on funding and resourcing

on clinical care,

in underlying determinants of health and in health systems.

There are various measures which can be taken on

that are compassionate,

that are rights based, that are evidence based

that will lead us to a harm reduction process

in relation to drug use and drug use disorders.

There is no space for

discrimination for stigmatisation

or criminalization,

people who use drugs in particular.

Those who have been historically marginalised and criminalised

should be meaningfully involved in the development and design

of drug laws and policies, including

the harm reduction policies and services that are designed to help them

and on an international level. We ought to be looking urgently

at revising the international legal framework on drug control

to best align with international human rights norms and standards

with harm reduction approaches and the personalization of the

right to health approach in which services are available, acceptable,

affordable, accessible of quality.

And this means that even at domestic level,

we have to all of us centre the dignity of people respect

their autonomy

and also provide them with information to make informed decisions.

And those should be free from conflict of interest,

especially from the pharmaceutical

industry, in what we've termed commercial determinants

of health.

Ending criminalization, stigmatisation and discrimination

as they present structural barriers to

accessing services and establishing therapeutic relationships

leads to poorer

health outcomes, as people may fear legal consequences.

So we must end criminalization and stigmatisation

and discrimination in order to improve trust,

to improve dialogue,

to improve creativity and innovation. In

this moment,

that's very urgent for a paradigm shift,

but really structural changes in how we approach drug use and how we understand

who are drug users. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh, Doctor

Zen,

uh, the special rapporteur will now take questions.

As usual,

we'll begin with questions from the room and

then move on to anyone joining us online.

Please state your name and your organisation before asking a question.

There are no questions in the room. Anybody online with a question for the better?

Rer

I don't seem to be any questions. Uh, Doctor Tang,

would you like to say anything else?

Just add anything or would you like to take uh, questions on any other subject.

If there are any questions on something

outside of the special rapporteur's report,

she is willing to take questions.

Otherwise I'll hand the flow back to her for concluding remarks. Thank you

so thank you very much. And I want to end, I think, on the basis of the

principles of human rights that, um, guide, um,

my work and my approach to the right to health mandate.

It is very important, um, to underscore the principles of substantive equality

non-discrimination

transparency as it enables accountability

and for office bearers to explain where things have

gone wrong as often things do go wrong.

Transparency is also important so that rights

holders know the processes available for them

to seek redress,

meaningful and

consequential participation of civil society,

but also people who are most affected

by drug use and these policies is very, very important.

And I want to urgently call on all

UN member states to ratify the International Covenant

on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

while paying attention to immediate interventions in the longer term,

the social transformation required

so as to recognise the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard

of physical and mental health.

The right to health remains one of

our most transformative solution orientated right,

as it not only looks at access to health facilities but also looks

at underlying determinants of health.

And we know without health we cannot realise any of our other rights

and in the context of drug use.

When we constantly put people in conflict with the law,

it means

they may be incarcerated.

They may end up with a criminal record

which may impede their access to education,

to housing,

to food security to many other state offered support, but also to travel.

And we know, especially when you are talking about Children and families,

that there is a risk there that families may

be separated and there may be issues of custody,

especially with young people and the youth.

We don't want to get them in a space where they are

in conflict with the law, because we don't understand how to best support them.

It's important to understand

how to support them when they transition from being childhood,

into teenagehood

and into adulthood,

and the one way of doing that is to absolutely approach this from a compassionate

evidence based and rights based approach.

And in closing, I do want to say

that I hope that all of the UN agencies,

all of the different treaty bodies and all of us

involved in this important work of drug use and drug controls

that we can really put the global advocacy

and all of the high level statements of intent

into action once and for all

to move from a war on drugs,

to uphold the right of dignity

and to truly ensure

that the realisation of the right of

everyone to the highest attainable standard of health

does not leave behind

people who are drug users. And with that, I would like to say thank you very much

and again reiterating the call for an immediate ceasefire

and to a call to end all wars around the world. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Uh, Doctor ZL

and thank you all for joining us at this press conference and

for taking an interest in the work of the special rapporteur.

Uh, we will now close this press conference. Thanks again.

And everybody have a good afternoon.

HRC Press conference: Special Rapporteur on the right to health - 26 June 2024