Mexico's top court opens door to recreational pot use

Yahoo – AFP, Yemeli Ortega, 5 Nov 2015

A demostrator smokes marijuana during a rally in front of the Supreme Court 

of Justice in Mexico City, on November 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's Supreme Court opened the door to recreational use of marijuana in a landmark ruling, giving a group of activists permission to grow and smoke their own pot.

Contributing to a growing drug policy debate in Latin America, the justices on Wednesday voted 4-1 in favor of the four members of the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use, whose Spanish acronym spells "SMART."

Justice Arturo Zaldivar, who backed the group's effort, said the country's marijuana prohibition is an "extreme" and "disproportionate" measure.

A woman smokes marijuana during a rally

 in front of the Supreme Court of Justice in

 Mexico City on November 4, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

The vote allows SMART to produce and consume its own pot, but not sell it. The ruling is expected to prompt other activists to turn to the top court, which must issue five similar rulings to establish a legal precedent.

Outside the court in the capital's historic center, dozens of people celebrated the ruling by smoking joints and dancing to reggae music.

"We won!" exclaimed Francisco Torres Landa, a 50-year-old lawyer and SMART member, pumping his fist in the air inside the chamber.

His group hopes the ruling will force Congress to consider legalizing marijuana, a move they say would strip drug cartels of a key source of cash and therefore reduce the country's runaway violence.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has opposed the legalization of pot, said his government "respects and accepts" the ruling.

But he told reporters that the decision is limited in scope to the four members of SMART and that it does not mean a broader legalization of marijuana.

The ruling, however, "opens a broad debate" on how to regulate the use of marijuana and "inhibit its consumption," he said.

Health Minister Mercedes Juan Lopez said her ministry will now have to draft new regulations to ensure that the health of non-pot smokers and children is protected.

The government will also have to look at terms for importing seeds.

A man smokes marijuana during a rally 

in front of the Supreme Court of Justice

 in Mexico City on November 4, 2015

(AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

'Not for us'

The SMART members themselves -- two lawyers, an accountant and a social activist -- say they do not even plan to grow and smoke pot.

Rather, the activists want to force the government and lawmakers to rethink the controversial war on drugs.

"This is not for the four of us," SMART member Torres Landa told AFP, saying the goal was to "break" the government's marijuana prohibition.

Pena Nieto, who took office in December 2012, has pressed on with his predecessor's controversial strategy of using troops to go after cartels.

The ruling, Pena Nieto said, "does not imply in any way the elimination of the policy that the government has maintained."

Legalization has caught on in other parts of Latin America.

Uruguay has created a regulated market for pot, while Chile's Congress is debating a law to legalize its recreational and medical use.

In the United States -- the biggest consumer of drugs from Mexico -- 23 US states and the capital Washington, D.C. now allow medical marijuana, and four others plus the US capital have legalized pot for recreational use.

People demonstrate for and against the decriminalization of marijuana in front 

of the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico City on November 4, 2015 (AFP 

Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico 'not ready for this'

The judge who voted against, Jorge Mario Pardo, argued that the ruling could not work because it does not address the ban against obtaining the seeds to grow marijuana.

"Mexico has many problems to resolve. It's not ready for this," said Consuelo Mendoza, president of the National Union of Parents, who took part in an anti-marijuana protest outside the court.

SMART took its case to the courts in 2013 after the government's health regulator, Cofepris, denied its request for permission to produce and consume its own marijuana for recreational use.

While Mexico's government has opposed the legalization of drugs, health authorities granted an exception last month for an eight-year-old girl suffering from severe epilepsy.

The girl, Grace, took her first treatment of a cannabis-based oil last month, which her parents hope will reduce the 400 epileptic fits she endures each day.

Mexican judges say it’s ok to smoke weed for fun https://t.co/43XMbzpZeF #INFOGRAPHIC shows global prevalence @AFP pic.twitter.com/hNw4LNrVty

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 5, 2015

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Global drugs conference delegates urge UN to publish leaked paper backing drug legalisation https://t.co/yRIB43Q73w pic.twitter.com/dPbi9l0sKR

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 21, 2015

Early release for thousands of US drug offenders

Thousands jailed in the United States for drug offenses are set to be released early in a bid to reduce the inmate population. The US has the highest rate of incarceration of any industrialized country.

Deutsche Welle, 7 Oct 2015

More than 5,500 inmates are set to go free in November in the largest one-time release of federal inmates in US history. As many as 40,000 prisoners could be released in coming years.

The US Sentencing Commission, an independent policy panel, voted last year to retroactively apply lower sentences for those convicted of drug-related felonies. On average sentences are being cut by an average of 25 months among federal inmates.

Obama presses to reduce prison population

President Obama has called for broad
 reforms to reduce the US's 2million
prisoner population.

Two years ago, President Barack Obama's Justice Department directed federal prosecutors to avoid seeking mandatory minimum sentences - which limit the discretion of judges to impose shorter sentences - for nonviolent drug offenders, as part of a broader initiative to reduce the country's incarceration rate.

The US has the largest prison population on the planet. There are 206,000 inmates in federal prisons, up from about 25,000 in 1980, according to the US Bureau of Prisons.

There were a total of 1.56 million inmates in federal and state prisons at the end of 2014, according to public figures from the US Department of Justice.

Just spoke to the NAACP about criminal justice reform, something many broadly agree on. Some stats:

— President Obama (@POTUS) 14 juli 2015

Reform advocates have long criticized sentencing disparities rooted in 1980s War on Drugs legislation that targeted crack cocaine and overwhelmingly jails minorities in troubled city centers.

A drug policy advocacy group welcomed the move but said it was no substitute for structural reform.

"Congress still needs to pass comprehensive criminal justice reform," Michael Collins of the Drug Policy Alliance said in a statement.

jar/jr (AP, Reuters)

Britain's Lord Sewel resigns after cocaine and prostitutes scandal

Yahoo – AFP, Katherine Haddon, 28 July 2015

Lord John Sewel apologised after pictures in The Sun newspaper appeared to 

show him snorting cocaine with prostitutes (AFP Photo)

London (AFP) - A British peer who was in charge of lawmakers' ethics quit the House of Lords on Tuesday after allegedly snorting cocaine off a prostitute's breasts, fuelling calls for reform of the unelected upper chamber.

Lord John Sewel, 69, apologised for the "pain and embarrassment" caused after the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper published footage of him apparently taking drugs and wearing an orange bra and studded leather jacket as he chatted to two sex workers.

The images also showed him calling Prime Minister David Cameron "facile" and "superficial" and insulting several other senior politicians.

The scandal has prompted renewed calls
for reforms to slim down the House of 
Lords, made up of 783 peers (AFP Photo/
Toby Melville)

Scotland Yard has launched an investigation and raided Sewel's home at an exclusive block of flats near the Houses of Parliament on Monday night.

While reforming the House of Lords is not a priority for Cameron's centre-right government, the case has sparked calls for the chamber -- the world's largest legislative assembly outside China -- to be slimmed down.

"I have today written to the clerk of the parliaments terminating my membership of the House of Lords," Sewel, previously a deputy speaker of the Lords, said in a statement.

"I want to apologise for the pain and embarrassment I have caused."

The Sun on Tuesday quoted the escorts as saying he snorted up to eight lines of cocaine and described one of their sessions.

"He slipped into a woman's blue dress and applied lipstick and eyeliner to engage in depraved sex games too obscene to report in a family newspaper," the tabloid said.

'Bloated' House of Lords

The married 69-year-old, dubbed "Lord Sewer" by The Sun, quit his £82,525 (115,000 euro, $128,000) a year deputy speaker post overseeing the conduct of fellow peers when the scandal first broke Sunday.

He then announced Monday that he would take a leave of absence from the Lords but faced growing pressure to step down entirely.

Members of the Lords - mostly former ministers appointed by their own political

parties - can claim a £300 daily attendance allowance (AFP Photo/Justin Tallis)

Several British newspapers said Tuesday that the case showed changes were needed to the House of Lords, made up of 783 peers who can claim a £300 daily attendance allowance.

Most members of the Lords, which scrutinises and rubber stamps legislation, are former ministers appointed by their own political parties.

The Daily Mirror, The Sun's main tabloid rival, launched a campaign Tuesday to get rid of all unelected peers.

Meanwhile, The Times said the House of Lords was "bloated" and its numbers should be reduced.

"An unelected chamber with esoteric practices and a median age of about 70 cannot afford to enter the public consciousness only when its members are embroiled in scandal," it said in an editorial.

Cameron is expected to create a string of new peers from his Conservative party in the coming months to give him a majority in the upper chamber, making it easier for his government to pass legislation.

The prime minister reportedly ruled out sweeping reforms to the Lords on a visit to Singapore, saying there was "no point in trying that route again" after a failed bid in 2012 pushed by his former coalition partners the Liberal Democrats.

Ten members of the Lords have been temporarily suspended since 2009

for breaches including abusing the expenses system (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)

'Privileges of a peerage'

Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Tina Stowell acknowledged the importance of public perceptions of the chamber as she welcomed Sewel's resignation.

"For the House of Lords to earn the confidence of the public, all of us must respect the privileges that come with a peerage and recognise that, because we are unelected, it is especially important to meet the standards the public have a right to expect," she said.

Sewel is a former academic and local politician in northeast Scotland who was appointed as a junior agriculture minister in Tony Blair's centre-left Labour government in 1997.

He gave up the Labour whip in 2012 when he took on the job of overseeing the conduct of peers.

Ironically, Sewel oversaw the introduction of a new system under which peers can be forced out of the Lords for breaching a code of conduct. Previously, only the monarch could eject them.

Ten peers have been temporarily suspended since 2009 for breaches including abusing the expenses system and offering to lobby for private companies.

A British politician, Lord John Sewel, has resigned from the House of Lords after

 a newspaper published a video allegedly showing him using cocaine with prostitutes.

Sewel was in charge of standards in the upper chamber.

Related Articles:

British peer quits House of Lords amid drug and sex allegations


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

The Unthinkable… Politics, A Review

Humans will begin to search for integrity and fairness and it's going to happen in the places you never expect. I said this last week, so this is a review. There'll come a time when you will demand this of your politics - fairness and integrity. So when the candidates start calling each other names, you will turn your back on them and they won't get any votes. They're going to get the point real fast, don't you think? How about that?

Let me give you another potential. This country that I sit in right now [USA] will set the mold for that particular attribute. I have no clock. Watch for the youngsters to set this in motion, and they will, for they are the voters of tomorrow and they do not want the energy of today. To some of them, it's so abominable they won't even register to vote in this energy. You're going to see this soon. That was number five.. ..."

Obama urges deeper look at race, hints at his future

Yahoo - AFP, Andrew Beatty, May 4, 2015

US President Barack Obama speaks at an event at Lehman College launching

 the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a new non-profit organization, in New York

on May 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama on Monday urged Americans to address the root causes of recent racially-tinged unrest, focusing not just on police actions but improving opportunities for young black men.

As police again mobilized on the streets of Baltimore to calm tempers after a false report of a man shot by officers, Obama weighed in on anger over police treatment of blacks that has prompted protests from New York to Ferguson.

Demanding more than stop-gap measures and a familiar cycle of waxing and waning public interest, Obama said protests were fuelled not just by police mistreatment, but a festering sense of "unfairness and of powerlessness."

"If we're just looking at policing, we're looking at it too narrowly," he said, sketching a grim picture of city neighborhoods plagued by absent fathers and drug-addicted mothers, where jail is a more likely career path than university.

"By almost every measure, the life chances of the average young man of color are worse than his peers," Obama said, making a highly personal pitch for change.

"Those opportunity gaps begin early, often at birth, and they compound over time, becoming harder and harder to bridge."

US President Barack Obama participates in a roundtable discussion with young 

people at an event at Lehman College launching the My Brother’s Keeper 

Alliance, a new non-profit organization, in New York on May 4, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

"There are consequences to inaction. There are consequences to indifference... over time, it wears us out. Over time, it weakens our nation as a whole."

Obama's comments came during a visit to New York to spin off his "My Brother's Keeper" initiative.

Started as a White House policy to talk about improving opportunities for young black men, it will now become an independent non-profit organization.

Making the initiative independent of the White House could portend a future role for Obama when he leaves the Oval Office in 2017.

Predecessors Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have both engaged in charity and policy work since leaving office.

"This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle, not just for the rest of my presidency, but for the rest of my life," Obama said.

"This is personal. Because in these young men, we see ourselves," he said, noting his father was also absent during his formative years.

Recent violence in Baltimore was prompted by the death in police custody of 25-year-old African-American Freddie Gray.

Stores were looted, hundreds were arrested, a curfew imposed and the National Guard deployed -- all in a city which lies about an hour's drive away from the US capital.

Barack Obama makes his way to board Marine One from the South

Lawn of the White House on May 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Obama has been criticized in some quarters for not becoming more involved in easing tensions.

My Brother's Keeper is expected to focus on improving education for boys and young men of color, as well as reducing violence.

Leveraging his presidential pulpit, Obama has convinced a series of high-profile businessmen, political leaders and entertainment stars to become involved including singer John Legend and former secretary of state Colin Powell.

It will be run by retired Deloitte CEO Joe Echevarria.

US Stays Out of Row on Indonesian Executions

Jakarta Globe, AFP, Apr 30, 2015

Supporters of Australians on death row in Indonesia Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran light candles during a vigil at Martin Place in Sydney on April 28,
2015. The two were later executed by firing squad. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)

Washington. The United States, where the death penalty is still carried out, on Wednesday steered clear of a storm of global protest triggered by Indonesia’s execution of seven foreign drug traffickers.

The seven — two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa — were shot along with one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.

“We don’t have much to say on this, other than we’re aware that they have executed eight [sic] foreign citizens convicted of drug trafficking,” State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “As we’ve said, none of these eight were Americans.”

She spoke as the US Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about lethal injections, after states began using alternative drugs — believed by some to cause pain and suffering — to carry out the executions.

A total of 18 out of 50 US states and the US capital Washington have abolished the death penalty, and the number of executions has fallen in recent years since the capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Of the 1,407 executions performed in the US since 1976, 13 have taken place so far this year.

Australia has withdrawn its ambassador to Jakarta in protest at the execution of their nationals, and the European Union has expressed dismay.

In Massachusetts meanwhile, defense lawyers are trying to save Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from a federal death sentence after he was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston bombings in which three people were killed.

US attorneys have argued that the 21-year-old of Chechen descent deserves to die for one of the bloodiest attacks on US soil since the 2001 9/11 attacks.

Agence France-Presse

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Pope hails Iran accord, urges end to 'absurd violence' in Easter message

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 5 April 2015

Pope Francis speaks from the central loggia of St Peters' basilica during the

 "Urbi et Orbi" blessing for Rome and the world following the Easter Mass in the

Vatican on April 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis appealed Sunday for an end to "absurd violence" in hotspots around the world and said the international community must not stand by in the face of the "immense humanitarian tragedy" in Syria and Iraq.

In his traditional Easter message, the 78-year-old pontiff said he was praying for those killed in armed conflict, including the students massacred by Somali gunmen at a university in Kenya.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims huddled under a sea of umbrellas in a rain-soaked St Peter's Square to hear the pope deliver his "Urbi et Orbi" (To the City and World) blessing, broadcast live to dozens of countries.

Pope Francis greets the crowd from the

 popemobile after the Easter Mass at

 St Peter's square in the Vatican on

April 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

In his third Easter message since his election as pope in 2013, the head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics prayed "for peace, above all, for Syria and Iraq, that the roar of arms may cease".

He called on the international community to "not stand by before the immense humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these countries and the drama of the numerous refugees" created by the two conflicts.

He also prayed for the victims of Thursday's attack in Kenya that left 148 people dead, with survivors sayng the militants spared Muslim students but taunted Christian and Jewish students before killing them.

"I think in particular of the young people who were killed last Thursday at Garissa University College in Kenya," he said.

Earlier Francis greeted pilgrims personally as he rode through the flower-bedecked square aboard his open Popemobile after presiding over Easter mass.

The most important and joyous moment of the Catholic calendar, Easter celebrates the day when Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

Pope Francis greets the crowd from 

the popemobile after the Easter Mass 

at the Vatican on April 5, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Speaking from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, Francis also said the framework nuclear accord reached Thursday between Iran and six major world powers inspired hope for "a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world".

The Argentine pope pleaded for "absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence" in Libya to be halted, and voiced his "desire for peace, for the good of the entire people" in war-battered Yemen and Ukraine.

Without referring to a particular hotspot, Francis said: "Those who bear within them God's power, his love and his justice, do not need to employ violence."

Be 'respectful, ready to help'

He prayed for "all who have been kidnapped, and for those forced to abandon their homes and their dear ones" in armed conflict and attacks by extremists in Nigeria and South Sudan as well as parts of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In addition, he urged "peace and freedom for the many men and women subject to old and new forms of enslavement on the part of criminal individuals and groups (and) for the victims of drug dealers... And we ask peace for this world subjected to arms dealers."

Pope Francis greets the crowd from

 the popemobile after the Easter Mass

 at the Vatican on April 5, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Francis also sounded his trademark appeal to the rich and powerful to care for the world's poor and downtrodden, saying: "The world proposes that we put ourselves forward at all costs, that we compete."

Instead, Christians should "seek to live in service to one another, not to be arrogant, but rather respectful and ready to help," he said.

Sunday's Easter observances capped a long and demanding Holy Week that left Francis at times appearing tired.

On Friday he presided over the traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession at Rome's Colosseum evoking the last hours of Jesus's life.

The day before Francis celebrated two masses -- one for priests, and the other at Rome's Rebibbia prison, where he washed the feet of 10 inmates symbolically evoking Christ's humility -- a theme he took up again on Sunday.

"To enter into the mystery, we need to 'bend down', to abase ourselves," Francis said.

Related Article:

Obama hopes to sway skeptics with "good" Iran deal

Obama Commutes Sentences of 22 Drug Offenders

Jakarta Globe, AFP,  Apr 01, 2015

US President Barack Obama signs a disapproval of S. J. Resolution 8, a joint
congressional resolution that would block a National Labor Relations Board rule
allowing faster union elections, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington
 March 31, 2015. Obama has now granted 43 commutations compared to President
George W. Bush’s 11. (Reuters Photo/Jonathan Ernst)

Washington. US President Barack Obama on Tuesday reduced the jail terms of 22 drug offenders, part of a drive to address fairness in sentencing.

The inmates, many sentenced to decades or life imprisonment for cocaine-related offenses, will be freed on July 28.

“I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around,” Obama wrote in letters to the 22 individuals. “I believe in your ability to prove the doubters wrong.”

The White House said many of those convicted had been sent to prison using “an outdated sentencing regime.”

“They served years — in some cases more than a decade — longer than individuals convicted today of the same crime,” said White House Counsel Neil Eggleston.

The White House said it wanted to encourage non-violent offenders who have a clean prison record and were sentenced under out-of-date laws to come forward.

Obama has now granted 43 commutations compared to President George W. Bush’s 11.

Agence France-Presse

Indonesia, Netherlands Organize Harm Reduction Talks at UNODC

Jakarta Globe, Natasia Christy, Mar 11, 2015

A casket carrying the body of Ang Kiem Soei, a Dutch national executed by
firing squad on Jan. 18, seen in an ambulance on the prison island of
 Nusakambangan, off Central Java. (EPA Photo/Bayu Nur)

Jakarta. As the Australia-Indonesia diplomatic rift over the pending executions of two drug convicts shows no signs of abating, ties with the Netherlands — which recalled its ambassador after one of its nationals was executed in January — seem to be on the mend.

On Tuesday, Indonesia and the Netherlands jointly organized a discussion on harm reduction on the sidelines of the 58th Commission on Narcotic Drugs session, at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna.

At the discussion, three experts, including Edo Agustian from the Indonesian Network of Drug Victims (PKNI), discussed ways to limit the spread of HIV as a consequence of drug use, a statement on the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s website said.

According to Edo, the Indonesian law enforcement system — with a primary focus on punishment instead of rehabilitation — has not been conducive in bringing down the number of infections.

Ambassador Rob Swartbol was called back to the Netherlands for consultations after the execution of Dutch national Ang Kiem Soei, on Jan.18. In a letter to the Dutch parliament, Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in early February that Swartbol had returned to Jakarta.

Koenders explained that the Netherlands opposes the death penalty in principle and that one of its government’s goals is to try and get Indonesia to abolish the punishment. The minister added, however, that it was important to be represented in Indonesia at the ambassadorial level.

“I would like to investigate the possibilities to cooperate with Indonesia to fight drug-related problems,” Koenders said in the letter.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry, in the statement posted on its website on Wednesday, said: “The cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands in handling drugs is not affected by the difference of opinion over the death penalty.”

According to data from the Indonesian Health Ministry, the number of people living with HIV and AIDS as a consequence of drug use grew from 186,000 in 2009 to 640,000 in 2013.

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Narcotics Agency: Drugs Kill 33 Indonesians Daily, Not 40-50

UN Narcotics Agency Calling for Abolition of Death Penalty

UN Narcotics Agency Calling for Abolition of Death Penalty

Jakarta Globe, Patrick Tibke, Mar 06, 2015

Andrew Chan, right, and Myuran Sukumaran wait in their court holding cell in
 Denpasar in this 2010 file photo. The pair are set to be executed this month,
officials say. (AFP Photo/Sonny Tumbelaka)

Jakarta. A new report by the International Narcotics Control Board, or INCB, has called on all countries to abolish the death penalty for drug-related crimes.

In the INCB’s annual report, which was published on Tuesday, board members encourage all “states which retain and continue to impose the death penalty for drug-related offenses to consider abolishing the death penalty.”

The INCB is an independent United Nations supervisory body, tasked with monitoring member states to ensure compliance with international drug treaties. Established in 1961, the INCB is made up of 13 elected representatives with expertise in either medicine or pharmacology, who are chosen once every five years by the UN’s Economic and Social Council.

The release of the INCB’s latest report comes just days before the administration of President Joko Widodo is scheduled to execute 10 drug traffickers on Nusakambangan prison island. Among the convicts slated for execution are Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who arrived on the island under military escort on Wednesday morning.

The INCB’s report also coincides with the 58th annual meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which is scheduled to take place in Vienna next week. The commission is made up of 53 representatives from a cross section of member states, and is tasked with considering new policy measures on international drug control.

The issue of capital punishment is expected to be highlighted at next week’s CND meeting, following a highly publicized flurry of executions in Indonesia, many of which involve foreign nationals such as Chan and Sukumaran.

Indonesia’s policy of executing drug traffickers has provoked international condemnation from both human rights campaigners and foreign governments who believe capital punishment is an inhumane and ineffective way of combatting drug crime.

In January, Joko’s decision to execute a Dutchman and a Brazilian national sparked a diplomatic crisis in which the Netherlands and Brazil recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta. Another Brazilian and one French national are now among the 10 drug convicts scheduled for execution this month, with both governments threatening diplomatic sanctions should the executions go ahead.

Tensions between Indonesia and its close neighbor Australia are also set to escalate, after numerous requests to spare the lives of Chan and Sukumaran were rejected by Indonesia’s attorney general, H.M. Prasetyo. Australian Foreign Minister Julia Bishop attempted an eleventh-hour prisoner swap to spare Chan and Sukumaran from the firing squad, but this too, was flatly rejected.

A coalition of 11 human-rights groups and drug-policy think-tanks have also weighed in on Joko’s execution policy.

On Tuesday morning, following the launch of the INCB’s report, the coalition released a joint statement condemning the “recent spate of executions in Indonesia,” and also citing a “widening rift” between UN member states on the issue of capital punishment.

The joint statement — which has been  signed by Reprieve, Harm Reduction International and the International Drug Policy Consortium — notes that “[a] number of other countries [in addition to Indonesia] have demonstrated a renewed enthusiasm for executing drug offenders over the past year.”

Iran, for instance, is believed to have executed more than 300 drug traffickers in 2014, and is thought to have executed 50 such convicts in January 2015 alone. Harm Reduction International believes that Iran has executed at least 10,000 drug convicts since the revolution of 1979, which represents the world’s highest per-capita execution rate on record.

Pakistan, a country that has previously considered ending capital punishment for drug offenses, has now returned to a policy of executing convicted drug traffickers.

In December 2014, the Pakistani government ended a six-year-moratorium on capital punishment, and now has at least 500 prisoners slated for execution in the coming months.

Among those 500, according to Tuesday’s joint statement, there are at least 112 drug traffickers who were apprehended with support and funding from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), an agency that officially opposes capital punishment for all drug offenses.

Oman, one of the few countries in the region that does not currently execute drug offenders, is also taking steps to introduce capital punishment.

In June 2014, the Omani State Council backed a proposal that would make drug trafficking a capital offense. The proposal is now being discussed at a “higher level” of government, according to Tuesday’s joint statement, “before being incorporated into [Omani] law.”

Amid this backdrop of growing polarization on the issue of capital punishment, UN member states will be keen to assert their position at the CND meeting slated for next week.

The timing of the INCB’s renewed call for all states to abolish capital punishment is crucial, since it reminds member states that the use of such provisions to combat drug crime runs counter to the will of the UN’s one and only independent supervisory body on drug control.

Having made its first statement condemning capital punishment only a year ago, the INCB is a late addition to the growing chorus of UN agencies and national governments calling for abolition.

After enduring decades of criticism for its failure to take an official stance on the death penalty, the INCB now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a long list of UN authorities — including the secretary general, the UN Human Rights Committee and the UNODC — in its opposition to capital punishment.

Only time will tell, however, whether the growing consensus on the need to abolish the death penalty for drug offenses will translate into concrete policy changes at the level of each member state.

Rick Lines, executive director at Harm Reduction International, suggests the UN should cut funding to those states that continue to execute drug traffickers, as a form of leverage in the battle for abolition.

“The first step must surely be for the UN to refuse to fund anti-drug operations in states which maintain the death penalty for drug offenses,” Lines said in Tuesday’s joint statement, “and instead use this money to tackle the health, social and human rights impacts of drug use.”

The impact of any such outside pressure remains in doubt, however, given that President Joko’s mantra of “no compromise” has proved to be immensely popular among conservative voters.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pleaded to Indonesia to

stop the execution of  prisoners on death row for drug crimes. AFP PHOTO

Related Article:

Ban appeals to Indonesia to stop death row executions