Failed drug policies in Latin America: the impact on prisons and human rights

PenalReform

In Latin America, around one third of all detainees are in jail for drug-related offences. The 'war on drugs' has had a damaging impact both on communities in the region and on the functioning of prison systems. In this last of our expert guest blogs for our anniversary year, Luciana Pol, Senior Fellow on Security and Human Rights at Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) in Argentina welcomes initiatives in several Latin American countries to start to recalibrate the criminal justice response to drugs and welcomes the inclusion of human rights perspectives into next year’s Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS) in April 2016.