By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Permanent representative in UN, Dino D. G. Dympep who is camping in Geneva while taking part in a session on Wednesday stressed the need for more humane treatment of drug users.
While debating in the session on the presentation of the Report of the Special Rapporteur, Prof. Juan E. Méndez, on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment said that “around the world, hundreds of thousands of people identified as drug users are detained without due process in so called rehabilitation centers where they are denied evidence-based drug dependence treatment and face serious abuse- including physical and sexual violence and forced labour”.
The 22nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council which is currently underway in Geneva, Switzerland is being participated by member states of the UN, expert members, high level dignitaries and civil society representatives from all around the world.
While many of the international health and drug-control agencies including the UN office of Drugs and Crime have made numerous calls to close the centers, these calls are routinely ignored, Dympep said in a statement issued here.
According to the NGO leader, in some cases, international donors- including UN agencies which are calling for closure of the centers- continue to provide funding and other support to drug detention centers, legitimizing or even facilitating the abuses” Dympep said.
Calling for closing compulsory drug detentions centers without delay, Dympep also said that there is a need for prompt, independent, and thorough investigations into torture, ill-treatment and other human rights abuses in the centers, and this needs to be followed up with appropriate legal action- including criminal prosecution of perpetrators.