Human Rights Day 2009: International Centre on Human Rights and Drug
Policy launched

‘Individuals who use drugs do not forfeit their human rights...Too
often, drug users suffer discrimination, are forced to accept treatment,
marginalized and often harmed by approaches which over-emphasize
criminalization and punishment while under-emphasizing harm reduction
and respect for human rights.’
Navanethem Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 2009

(10 December 2009) Today, Human Rights Day, is the occasion for the
launch of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy. The
Centre is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high
quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related to drug
laws, policy and enforcement. It pursues this mandate by publishing
original, peer reviewed research on drug issues as they relate to
international human rights law, international humanitarian law,
international criminal law and public international law, and fostering
research on drug policy issues among postgraduate law and human rights
students at universities and colleges around the world.

The Centre’s work is supported by a prestigious International Advisory
Committee as well as two Institutional Partners. At present, the Centre
has established two ongoing projects:

• The International Yearbook on Human Rights and Drug Policy is the
first and only international peer reviewed law journal focusing
exclusively on human rights and drug policy. We are now accepting
submissions to the first edition of the Yearbook to be published in late
2010.

• The Human Rights and Drug Policy Project is a joint initiative with
the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, National University
of Ireland, Galway. This Project will establish a Doctoral Studentship
in Human Rights and Drug Policy, as well as a programme of activities
designed to promote research on drug policy issues among other
university human rights programmes. Applications for the Doctoral
Studentship are being accepted until 18 December.

For more information, please visit www.humanrightsanddrugs.org or email
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