Joint U.N. statement on closure of drug detention camps is 'unequivocal'

Daniel Wolfe, director of the International Harm Reduction Development Program, part of the Open Society Public Health Program, writes in the Open Society Foundations' blog about "a recent joint U.N. statement calling for the immediate closure of the hundreds of centers in which drug users are detained in the name of treatment," saying the statement "came not a moment too soon." He continues, "This call for closure of drug detention camps comes after years of horrifying reports of abuses in these facilities." According to Wolfe, "The message, endorsed by agencies such as UNAIDS, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, and the International Labor Organization, is unequivocal. Locking people up and abusing them in the name of drug rehabilitation is ineffective. It violates human rights. And countries shouldn't do it" (3/13).