When the UN Won't Condemn Torture You Know Something's Very Wrong

Damon Barrett (Deputy Director at Harm Reduction International)
The Huffington Post (US)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012

When the UN's drugs watchdog, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), was asked recently about its official position on torture carried out in the name of drug enforcement, one would have expected an unequivocal denunciation. Instead, what was given was an unequivocal refusal to do so. In the light of documented cases of torture to extract information from suspects and to punish drug users and those convicted of drug offences, this refusal to condemn the most egregious of human rights abuses is cause for serious concern and highlights clear tensions between the UN human rights and drug control regimes.

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