ID: HR19-3

Presenting author: Rick Lines

Presenting author biography:

Associate Professor of Criminology and Human Rights, School of Law, Swansea University. Rick is author of ‘Drug Control and Human Rights in International Law’ and has been called ‘a key figure in the emerging field of human rights and drug policy’. He is past Executive Director of Harm Reduction International.

The competing concepts of dignity in human rights and drug control

Rick Lines

Human dignity is a fundamental principle within international human rights law, and is a status described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one 'inherent' to 'all members of the human family'. However, since the 1980s, dignity (or more specifically the protection or restoration of dignity) it is also a concept increasingly found in drug control discourse as a justification for drug suppression and punitive drug laws. However, rather than being a universal status based on personhood, within drug control discourse dignity is a conditional status based upon the presence or absence of drug use. In this context, a person who uses drugs by definition lacks dignity (or has had dignity taken away), a person who does not use has dignity maintained or protected and a person who stops using drugs may have dignity restored or rescued. The protection or restoration of dignity therefore becomes a rationale for States to pursue repressive drug suppression measures, measures that often violate the dignity and rights of both people who use drugs, and others caught up in the drug war. This presentation will review these competing concepts of dignity, and explore what this divergence tells us about the nature of the modern drug control regime and the inherent human rights risk the regime creates.