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Anti-Drug Law Perpetuates Rights Abuses In China
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On January 6, 2010, the Human Rights Watch-New York has released a 37-page report titled "Where Darkness Knows No Limits" prepared based on research in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, and documents how China's June 2008 Anti-Drug Law compounds the health risks of suspected illicit drug users by allowing government officials and security forces to incarcerate them for up to seven years. The report says that the confinement is without trial or judicial oversight; the law fails to clearly define mechanisms for legal appeals or the reporting of abusive conduct, and does not ensure evidence-based drug dependency treatment.
Health and Human Rights Division Director at Human Rights Watch Joe Amon says, "Instead of putting in place effective drug dependency treatment, the new Chinese law subjects suspected drug users to arbitrary detention and inhumane treatment. The Chinese government has explained the law as a progressive step towards recognizing drug users as ‘patients,' but they're not even being provided the rights of ordinary prisoners."
The report documents how individuals detained in some drug detention centers are routinely beaten, denied medical treatment, and forced to work up to 18 hours a day without pay. Although sentenced to "rehabilitation," the Chinese authorities have denied them access to effective drug dependency treatment and an opportunity to learn skills to reintegrate into the community.
Addressing illicit drug use requires developing voluntary, community-based, outpatient treatment based upon effective proven approaches to drug addiction, Amon has said, "The Chinese government should stop these abuses and ensure that the rights of suspected drug users are fully respected. Warehousing large numbers of drug users and subjecting them to forced labor and physical abuse is not ‘rehabilitation.'"
