10 Points We Want Canada to Push For at the United Nations

On April 19 – 21, 2016 the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs, (UNGASS) took place in New York City. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the world came together to discuss issues related to drugs as a global community.

CDPC and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network have outlined 10 key recommendations that we asked the Canadian delegation to push for in these negotiations.

We asked hundreds of harm reduction and non-governmental non-profits all over Canada to sign on to our document that would give guidance for the future of drug policy in Canada. Over 100 organizations signed on to the document, which we presented to the federal government before the UNGASS in April. You can read the full document by clicking here.

10 things would change the game if all countries were to:

1. Promote and implement a public health and human rights approach to drugs, based on evidence;

2. Support harm reduction as a key component of a comprehensive response to drugs;

3. Pursue the decriminalization of possession of all drugs for personal use;

4. Support countries’ flexibility to experiment with alternative, health-oriented approaches to drugs;

5. Respect, protect and promote human rights;

6. Ensure full access to essential medicines;

7. Ensure diverse representation at key international meetings on drugs;

8. Reject ill-conceived and unrealistic demands for a “drug-free world”;

9. Promote and adopt more comprehensive, sophisticated indicators to evaluate drug policy; and

10. Establish a post-UNGASS mechanism that will ensure a full review of current drug policies.