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Human Rights

Javier Sicilia addressing conference, with translator Ana Paula Hernandez (photo courtesy HCLU, drogriporter.hu/en)
Javier Sicilia addressing conference, with translator Ana Paula Hernandez (photo courtesy HCLU, drogriporter.hu/en)

Mexico's Symbol of Drug War Resistance Says It's Our Fight, Too [FEATURE]

A panel at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference last week called on Americans to take action to help end the drug war in Mexico, even as Human Rights Watch releases as a damning report on government killings, tortures, and disappearances in the drug war.
rehab-archipelago-small.jpg
rehab-archipelago-small.jpg

Vietnam Using Drug Takers as Slave Labor [FEATURE]

A shocking new report from Human Rights Watch details how Vietnamese "drug treatment centers" don't provide treatment, but do provide abuse, torture and virtual slave labor for private companies to exploit.
Richard Branson blogs about being invited onto the global commission, on virgin.com.
Richard Branson blogs about being invited onto the global commission, on virgin.com.

Big Name Panel Calls Global Drug War a "Failure" [FEATURE]

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of former heads of state and other international dignitaries, is calling for fundamental reform of the international drug control system.
The hangman has been -- and will be -- getting a real work out in Iran. (Image via Wikimedia.org)
The hangman has been -- and will be -- getting a real work out in Iran. (Image via Wikimedia.org)

Iran to Hang 300 for Drug Trafficking

Iran has already executed more than 125 people for drug trafficking so far this year, and more than 300 await the hangman. It claims that's the only way to stop the flow of drugs destined for Europe.

Drug Warriors Gun Down Young Father (Opinion)

James Peron, President of the Moorfield Storey Institute, recounts the recent drug prohibition related death of a young husband, father, and Iraq veteran who was shot at 71 times by heavily armed men who then allegedly prevented medical assistance from being given until he was dead. The heavily armed men were from the Pima County Sheriff's Department. Another drug raid gone bad.

Mexico’s Congress Considers Changing Security Law In Attempt to Control Drug Prohibition Violence

With the current session of Mexico’s Congress scheduled to expire Friday, members of Mexico’s House of Deputies have less than a week to deliberate over extremely controversial changes to the country’s National Security Law that would give the President the power to deploy Mexico’s Armed Forces against broadly defined internal threats to Mexican national security. PT and Convergencia parties say that the 83-page initiative to change the law constitutes a threat to individual liberties and could create a state of exception in Mexico that would effectively put the country under military control. They remain deeply skeptical of proposed changes to the law, which advocate, among other things, the monitoring and recording of private communication for intelligence-gathering purposes. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have drawn attention to frequent abuses by the Mexican military and contend that there is a widespread systemic failure to prosecute human rights violations in Mexican military courts.
The busts and arrests go on, but so does the violence. (Image via Wikimedia)
The busts and arrests go on, but so does the violence. (Image via Wikimedia)

Mexico Drug War Update

Skinning people alive!? Just when you thought it couldn't get any more gruesome.

Mexicans Seeking Asylum Due to Drug Prohibition War Form Coalition in Texas

The director of the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Louie Gilot, said cases of Mexicans fleeing drug prohibition violence have risen significantly over the past two years and that the asylum seekers include former police officers, rights activists, journalists, business leaders and even government officials. Carlos Spector, an attorney, said the U.S. government is reluctant to grant political asylum to Mexican applicants because doing so means recognizing that aid from Washington is financing military abuses against the Mexican civilian population.