DAWN has joined 188 civil society organizations (CSO) in an open letter calling on UN drug control agencies to take action to prevent further deaths and human rights violations in the name of drug control in Bangladesh.
Open Letter from community and civil society organisations calling on UN drug control agencies to condemn and take action against the war on drugs in Bangladesh
5th June 2018
To: Mr. Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); Dr. Viroj Sumyai, President, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB)
CC.: Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation
We, the undersigned 188 NGOs, call on the UNODC and the INCB to strongly condemn the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, intimidation and violence perpetrated by law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh in their drive to eliminate drugs from the country.
Over 130 people have been killed and more than 13,000 people arrested in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched a nationwide anti-drugs campaign in May 2018, aimed at eradicating the supply of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs. Bangladeshi police have reported that the killings of suspected “drug dealers” happened during “gunfights” with rival gangs or law enforcement officers acting in self-defense during anti-drug operations1. These operations have been carried out based upon lists of suspects compiled by law enforcement agencies and involve the use of “mobile courts” that have already resulted in the criminal prosecution of over 7,000 people, thereby giving rise to serious doubts about adherence to due process2. Such operations have been contested by the families of victims, civil society organisations, and the National Human Rights Commission3, who called upon law enforcement agencies to operate with transparency and accountability, and for their officers to be subject to investigation by an independent judicial inquiry commission in cases involving death, violence, arbitrary detention and other human rights abuses.
Health and harm reduction services for people who use drugs, including those which offer HIV prevention, treatment and care and drug dependence treatment, are reportedly under threat of closure or already closed down by law enforcement officers. In addition, it has been reported that outreach workers associated with those services have been harassed by law enforcement operatives and some clients have disappeared. Far from undertaking any measures towards implementing a comprehensive and balanced drug policy, including a health-based response to drug use, the Bangladesh Government is also now considering legislation to impose the death penalty for drug offences4.
For various governments around the world, anti-drug campaigns driven by tough law enforcement remain a policy of choice. The Philippines’ war on drugs serves as a stark reminder of this unceasing trend – as have the killings and mass arrests resulting from similar drug control approaches in Cambodia, Indonesia and now Bangladesh. Yet open discussion about the inexcusable nature and deeply damaging impacts of such drug policy interventions on communities remains severely limited at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the key UN drug policymaking body.
Nevertheless, governments around the world, including Bangladesh, recently agreed to a comprehensive set of international commitments at the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in 2016, including to “[p]romote and implement effective criminal justice responses to drug-related crimes to bring perpetrators to justice that ensure legal guarantees and due process safeguards pertaining to criminal justice proceedings.”5 In addition the INCB recently urged governments to “protect the rights of alleged drug offenders and drug users at all stages of the criminal justice process.”6
While in 2016, both the UNODC Executive Director7 and the INCB President8 issued strong statements condemning the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines war on drugs, there has been no such statement on similar anti-drug campaigns launched by other Asian countries. Your leadership in this critical juncture is essential to ensuring that the repressive approaches adopted by Bangladesh and others do not have a snowball effect, with additional countries considering it acceptable to seek to eradicate drug markets with unnecessary use of force and human rights abuses, in clear breach of the UN drug control treaties and international human rights law. We therefore call upon the UNODC and INCB to take urgent action to prevent further killings and abuses perpetrated by the Bangladesh government, in particular:
1. Issue a high-level statement to:
a. condemn the killings resulting from anti-drug operations in the country, and call for investigations into those killings, in accordance with international law, the UNGASS Outcome Document and the recommendations accepted by the Government of Bangladesh during its Universal Periodic Review in May 2018
b. urge the Government of Bangladesh to suspend its current anti-drug operations until it has set up protocols that are based upon human rights and the rule of law, and
c. advise the Government of Bangladesh against instituting the death penalty for drug offenses
2. Recommend and assist with the implementation of drug policy measures based on evidence, human rights, human security and public health (especially HIV prevention, drug treatment and other services for people who use and inject drugs, including those held in detention or prisons), that are developed through transparent, accountable and participatory processes inclusive of civil society and affected communities.
3. Remain vigilant to other countries showing signs of adopting similar repressive policies, and initiate constructive and inclusive dialogue at an early stage to avoid further human rights violations in the name of drug control.
We urge you to work with governments to ensure that drug policies worldwide have, in the words of the UN Secretary-General, ‘a positive impact on the lives of millions of people around the world’.9 We look forward to your urgent response.
Yours sincerely,
Download the PDF of the letter to see the full list of the 188 signatories CSO: NGOletter_Bangladesh_EJKs
REFERENCES
1. 5 June 2018, “4 ‘drug traders’ killed in ‘gunfights,’” The Daily Star, https://www.thedailystar.net/country/2-more-drug-traderskilled-gunfights-1586686; 2 June 2018, “Jails crammed with 85,859 inmates,” New Age Bangladesh, http://www.newagebd.net/article/42635/jails-crammed-with-85859-inmates; 31 May 2018, “U.S. voices concern over increasingly deadly Bangladeshi anti-drug drive,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bangladesh-drugs/u-s-voices-concern-overincreasingly-deadly-bangladeshi-anti-drug-drive-idUSKCN1IW1IL
2. 1 June 2018, “Bangladesh accused of using drugs war to hide political assassinations,” The Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/06/01/bangladesh-drugs-war-used-hide-political-assassinations/
3. 1 June 2018, “’Murder’ it was,” The Daily Star, https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/murder-it-was-1584580; 1 June 2018, “TIB demands judicial probe into ‘shootouts,’” The Daily Star, https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/tib-demands-judicial-probeshootouts-1584547; 29 May 2018, “BANGLADESH: Government escalates extrajudicial executions declaring ‘war on drugs,’” Written Submission to the 38th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council by the Asian Legal Resource Centre, http://alrc.asia/government-escalates-extrajudicial-executions-declaring-war-on-drugs/; 28 May 2018, ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY: What they think of ongoing drives,” The Daily Star, https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/what-they-think-1582501
4. 2 June 2018, “Death sentence proposed in new law on yaba,”Bangla Tribune, http://en.banglatribune.com/others/news/3935/Death-sentence-proposed-in-new-ACT-on-Yaba
5. UN General Assembly, “Our joint commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem,” GA resolution S30/1
(2016), http://www.unodc.org/documents/postungass2016//outcome/V1603301-E.pdf, para 4(o)
6. International Narcotics Control Board, Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2017, http://www.incb.org/incb/en/publications/annual-reports/annual-report-2017.html, para 254
8. https://www.incb.org/incb/en/news/press-releases/2017/press_release_20170818.html
9. United Nations Secretary General (22 June 2017), Secretary-General stresses ‘vital’ need to examine effectiveness of war-on-drugs
approach, in message for international day, https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sgsm18585.doc.htm
Image: Drug Dealers Killed During The Anti-Drug Campaign In Bangladesh. Rehman Asad / Barcroft Images / Barcroft Media via Getty Images.