Focus

Learn about the Pompidou Group's approach on bringing Human Rights to the forefront of drug policy

There is a need to have processes in place for on-going assessment to ensure that human rights are and remain respected and safeguarded. Policy makers, policy implementers and policy evaluators must be aware and mindful of the human rights dimension that should inspire their choices and decisions. The Pompidou Group stresses this need in its 2017 statement on bringing human rights into drug policy. The statement confirms the member states’ categorical opposition to the death penalty and condemns extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Member states also express their commitment to good democratic governance principles and to reducing the stigma of drug users, and acknowledge indicators that can be relied upon when conducting a human rights-based review of drug policy.
 

• Statement on bringing human rights into drug policy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
• Background paper ‘Drug policy and Human Rights in Europe: Managing tensions, maximizing complementarities’
• Statement on costs and spill-over consequences of drug policies

Pompidou Group Guidance Paper on Psychosocial Support

Approximately 60-70% of the general population experience a traumatic event at some point in their lifetime, which can include forms of violence, abuse, neglect and war. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Substance Use Disorders (SUD) are often concurrent and develop as a result of a person being exposed to a traumatic event.

Therefore, part of providing adequate health service is responding correctly to the effects of trauma.

The latest Pompidou Group paper addresses this issue, by providing guidance on psychosocial support to tackle trauma-related symptoms and related substance use disorders, in particular among refugees, internally displaced persons and war veterans as groups especially vulnerable to PTSD.