Human Rights Abuses in the Name of Drug Treatment

Resource: Human Rights Abuses in the Name of Drug Treatment
Open Society Institute
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Title: Human Rights Abuses in the Name of Drug Treatment: Reports from
the Field

Publisher: International Harm Reducation Development (IHRD) Program,
Open Society Insitute (OSI)

Around the world, governments commit flagrant and widespread human
rights violations against people who use drugs, often in the name of
"treating" them for drug dependence. Suspected drug users are subject to
arbitrary, prolonged detention and, once inside treatment centers,
abuses that may rise to the level of torture. Drug users who voluntarily
seek medical help are sometimes unaware of the nature or duration of the
treatment they will receive. In fact, treatment can include detention
for months or years without judicial oversight, beatings, isolation, and
addition of drug users' names to government registries that deprive them
of basic social protections and subject them to future police
surveillance and violence.

The accounts in this fact sheet, drawn from published literature and
interviews with people who have passed through treatment in Asia and the
former Soviet Union, detail the range of abuses practiced in the name of
drug dependence treatment, and suggest the need for reform on grounds of
health and human rights.

Download the fact sheet at this link:
http://www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/ihrd/articles_publications
/publications/treatmentabuse_20090318/treatmentabuse_20090309.pdf