LEAHN Country Focal Point for Uganda, Twaibu Wamala (pictured), was a major contributor to this report.
THE NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES (CONTROL) ACT, 2015 AND THE LEGAL REGULATION OF DRUG USE IN UGANDA:
Analysing the tension between Criminal Law, Public Health and Human Rights
A study by Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) in collaboration with Uganda Harm Reduction Network (UHRN) and with the support of the Open Society Institute for Eastern Africa (OSIEA)
October 2016
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
i. Introduction and background
The issue of regulation of drug use made headlines with the recent enactment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act of 2015 (NDPSA) in Uganda. This Act introduces a much more rigorous and criminal law based legal regime governing drug use and clearly domesticates the international ‘war on drugs.’ The war on drugs has negative implications of the individual users of drugs who are harassed, forced to hide, and regarded as unapprehended criminals. In particular, the criminalisation of individual drug use is viewed to increase the vulnerability of this group to numerous negative socio-economic outcomes, including a severely heightened risk of HIV infection. The adoption of the NDPSA proceeded largely without rigorous consideration of the probable human rights implications of this Act on PWUD.
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum provides legal aid services to the most marginalised persons including persons who use drugs. Through its work, HRAPF has come across cases where members of this group are subjected to discrimination in as far as social recognition, service provision and the protection of fundamental rights are concerned. The legal environment is viewed as both a contributing cause as well as reinforcing factor of this stigma. Furthermore, despite the scale of drug use and the imperative public health and human rights issues which its criminalisation presents, there is currently no detailed study on the legal and policy environment relating to people PWUD in Uganda. It is upon this background that HRAPF decided to conduct this study into the enforcement of laws affecting PWUD in Uganda.
The study analyses the NDPSA and the other laws currently in place as part of the legal regulation of drug use in Uganda. This is done through assessing both its compliance to relevant domestic, regional and international law, as well the impact of this regime upon the rights and welfare of PWUD. The study specifically interrogates the NDPSA, in terms both of its provisions and the manner and extent to which they have been enforced thus far, in light of Uganda’s human rights obligations and the existing regulatory climate. The ultimate question posed and answered by this study is whether an appropriate balance has been struck between the State objective to reduce crime and the human rights and public health imperatives implicated by drug use.