Canada: Drug Policy and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights-Submission to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

“Canada is a party to the three main UN drug control conventions, which aim to control illicit drugs by reducing supply and demand, in particular through requiring States Parties to adopt varying degrees of prohibitions and sanctions on a range of designated controlled substances, while also providing some degree of (often contested) flexibility for States Parties in their approach.1 However, Canada must also fulfill its domestic constitutional obligations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as those under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [CESCR], which Canada has ratified. These human rights obligations bind the state in its response to drugs.’