The Mauritian Prime Minister’s recent announcement that he was planning to reintroduce the death penalty in an attempt to reduce drug trafficking in the country, if successfully passed,   would bring on a public health disaster and drive injecting drug use underground in a country where some 90 per cent of HIV infections are among injecting drug users (IDUs), the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) said today. (1)

The main drug of injection in Mauritius is Subutex (Buprenorphine), the focus of the Prime Minister’s proposal, and it is estimated that some two per cent of the country’s adult population injects drugs, an alarmingly high rate. (2)

“Prime Minister Ramgoolam would do well to look to the evidence - international experience has shown time and again that disproportionate criminal justice responses to a public health problem such as this just do not work,” said Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of IHRA who is attending the 53rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting being held in Vienna this week.

In recent years Mauritius has recognised the scale of its injecting drug use problem and injection driven HIV, scaling up harm reduction programs in the form of needle and syringe exchange and methadone prescription.

“It is  ill-coneived to think it might be wise to increase punishments related to the very drug used by the people the Government should be trying to attract to harm reduction programmes,” said  Stimson. “Clampdowns have not worked anywhere and worse still, they are counterproductive. Reintroducing the death penalty would only drive people away from health services and increase the risk of HIV transmission. And it would do nothing to curb trafficking”

Mauritius voted in favour of the historic moratorium on the use of the death penalty at the UN General Assembly in 2007, and again in 2008. In 2009, the Government proudly told Member States of the UN Human Rights Council that it had abolished capital punishment.

Mauritius is also bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6(2) of that treaty states that the death penalty may only be used for the "most serious crimes". It is well established in international law now that drug crimes do not meet that threshold. Mauritius is also a party to the UN Convention Against Torture which bans cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

Re introducing the death penalty, if carried through, would be illegal.

“The Mauritian Government cannot have its cake and eat it,” said  IHRA´s Senior Human Rights Analyst Damon Barrett, who is also attending the CND meeting. “It says one thing on the international stage to look strong on human rights, and another at the national level to look tough on drugs. Talk of the death penalty puts Mauritius in danger of being on the wrong side of a global movement towards more humane and effective criminal justice systems.”

The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) is the leading organisation promoting a harm reduction approach to all psychoactive substances on a global basis. IHRA exists to prevent the negative social, health, economic and criminal impacts of illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco for individuals, communities and society. IHRA supports the engagement of people and communities affected by drugs and alcohol around the world and works to promote harm reduction and human rights issues within national, regional and international bodies (such as the UN).

Harm Reduction 2010, the International Harm Reduction Association’s 21st International Conference, will be held in Liverpool, England, April 25-29, 2010

www.ihra.net/Liverpool/Home