In countries throughout the world, drug war excesses violate human rights, in some cases challenging rule of law itself. This year the UN's UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development had a focus on Goal 16 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
The reduced-size in-person meeting was held at UN headquarters in New York. Parallel and side events to the went online instead. "SDG 16: The Global War on Drugs vs. Rule of Law and Human Rights" was a parallel event to the HLPF, held on July 13, 2021 at 8:00am ET.
Our event discussed extrajudicial drug war killings, fair trial issues and the death penalty, as well as the use of legal harassment against critics of governments. The session discussed recent applications of international rule of law mechanisms including the ICC and Magnitsky laws.
Our speakers this year included Justine Balane, human rights activist from the Philippines; Iftitahsari, Researcher at the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, Indonesia; and Scott Johnston, Staff Attorney for Human Rights Accountability at the global NGO Human Rights First. The event was co-moderated by David Borden, Executive Director of DRCNet Foundation AKA StoptheDrugWar.org; and Marco Perduca, representing Associazone Luca Coscioni, who served in Italy's Senate from 2007-2013.
Our event elicited responses from the government on Indonesia, live during the Questions and Comments section; and from the government of the Philippines in writing later. We also had questions and comments from Kenzi Riboulet Zemouli of NGO FAAAT; iDEFEND Philippines Secretary General Rose Trajano; and Gang Badoy Capati, Executive Director of Rock Ed Philippines, who was a speaker on our 2021 HLPF event.
- Iftitahsari/ICJR presentation (PDF)
- Human Rights First Global Magnitsky Explainer (Word)
- Human Rights First Targeted Sanctions Submission Template (Word)
- response from Philippine Mission to the United Nations (PDF)
full event video (YouTube playlist):
full event video (single file):
Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/global and https://stopthedrugwar.org/philippines for information on our international programs.