New report connects international aid for drug enforcement to gross human rights violations

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New report connects international aid for drug

enforcement to gross human rights violations

PR Newswire

LONDON, June 21, 2012

LONDON

,

June 21, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- Millions of dollars in international aid

for drug enforcement is spent in countries with extremely poor human rights

records resulting in serious abuses, according to a new report by the non-

governmental organisation, Harm Reduction International.

Launched in advance of the UN day against drugs, on

June 26

, the report

Partners in Crime: International Funding for Drug Control and Gross Violations

of Human Rights tracks drug enforcement funding from donor states, often via

the United Nations, to countries where executions, arbitrary detention, physical

abuse and slave labour are weapons in the war on drugs.

"There are no safeguards, and when the UN acts as a conduit for these funds, a

further layer of bureaucracy separates the money from the abuses. Instead of

the UN being a guardian of human rights it becomes more like a laundry

mechanism, washing the funds of any form of accountability," said Damon

Barrett, Deputy Director of Harm Reduction International.

Thirty-two states or territories retain the death penalty for drug offences.

Among those,

China

,

Iran

and

Vietnam

apply capital punishment prolifically for

drug offences and all are in receipt of international funding and UN assistance

for drug enforcement. Harm Reduction International estimates as many as

1,000 people are executed every year for drugs.

Partners in Crime

illustrates the very recent case of a UK woman Khadija Shah,

now facing the death penalty in

Pakistan

, who was captured through a

programme paid for by Canadian government money aimed at strengthening

the

Pakistan

government's capacity at international transit points, including

airports.

The report also documents the involvement of the Australian Federal Police in

the capture in

Indonesia

of the 'Bali Nine,' a group which included Australian

citizens, some of whom are now on death row as a result.

"In some cases donor states have effectively paid for the capture of their own

citizens only for them to be later sentenced to death," said Barrett.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been held in drug detention centres in

Asian countries, in particular

China

,

Vietnam

,

Cambodia

and Lao PDR,

supposedly for the purpose of treatment. They are held without trial for months

or even years.

Despite the fact that serious concerns have been raised about the absence of

due process guarantees and forced labour, psychological and physical abuse

within the centres, European donors,

Australia

and the US have supplied

funding, including via the United Nations, for capacity building and even

infrastructure.

"In the name of drug control, donors are supporting practices in other countries

that they themselves regard as morally reprehensible and illegal," concluded

Barrett.