This joint submission provides evidence of the role of drug laws and policies as a driver of discriminatory policing and incarceration, and of how this leads to the violation of the right to be free from racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health. The submitting organisations urge the Committee to recognise explicitly in the General Recommendation that contact with the criminal legal system is a social determinant of health, and that States have the obligation to reform criminal laws, policies, and practices with racially discriminatory outcomes including drug-related laws, policies, and practices.
