The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy is pleased to welcome you to the second volume of Human Rights and Drugs, the official journal of the Centre. Established in 2009, the Centre is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights research and teaching on issues related to drug laws, policy and enforcement.
There have been a number of exciting developments at the Centre since the first issue of the journal was released last year. The first is a change in the name of the journal itself to Human Rights and Drugs,1 and an expansion of the publication schedule to two volumes annually. We will be publishing a second edition of the journal in the autumn of 2012, and are accepting submissions now.
The second development is the agreement of an academic partnership between the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. Established in 1983, Essex is one of the oldest and most internationally- renowned academic human rights centres in the world. The International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy will now be formally housed at Essex, which creates a tremendous opportunity to expand the visibility of drug policy issues within human rights law community, as well as to engage undergraduate and postgraduate students through lectures and seminars. Although moving to Essex, we maintain a strong relationship with our original home at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway, and will continue to be an active contributor to academic life at that institution.
The timing of this new partnership with Essex could not be better, and clearly reflects the growing interest in engaging issues of drugs and drug policy through the lens of international human rights law. This edition of Human Rights and Drugs is a product of that growing interest, and we are pleased to present new research and analysis in a broad range of topic areas. Indeed, the content of this second issue of the journal could not be more timely and relevant, particularly as the contributions reflect on - and offer thoughtful contrasts to - the recent work of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the treaty body established by the UN drug conventions to oversee their implementation. For example, the Board has recently refused to take a position on either the death penalty for drug offences or drug detention centres, putting it at odds with the clear positions on these issues expressed by UN human rights bodies, as explored in two articles in this journal.
Other issues included in the journal are: compulsory detention of people who use (or are suspected of using) drugs for the purpose of ‘drug treatment’; human rights implications of capital punishment for drug offences in China; safe injection facilities and the Canadian courts; the International Narcotic Control Board's attempts to extend the scope of its powers to regulate plant materials containing psychoactive substances; the evolving interpretation of drug use in Article 33 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and finally, the limits of freedom of speech when it is prejudicial against people who use drugs.
Rick Lines and Damon Barrett
Editors-in-Chief
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