DUSHANBE, March 16, Asia-Plus — Over 31,000 women across Europe and Central Asia are imprisoned for drug offences, representing 28 percent of all women in prisons in these regions, according to a new report by Harm Reduction International (HRI).
The report entitled “Cause for Alarm: The Incarceration of Women for Drug Offences in Europe and Central Asia, and the Need for Legislative and Sentencing Reform”, the first to calculate the total number of females in prisons on drug offences in Europe and Central Asia, was launched on the opening day of the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which is taking place in Vienna March 12-16.
The report collected data from fifty-one European and Central Asian countries between August 2011 and February 2012 through government agencies, including national prison services, ministries of justice and drug agencies; as well as academic researchers and civil society organisations. Drug offences include possession, preparation, production, purchase and sale of illicit substances.
In some countries (Latvia, Tajikistan) more than half of female prisoners, are imprisoned for non-violent drug offences. Moreover, in Russia, almost 20,000 women are imprisoned for drugs, far more than double the amount of women in prison in the countries of the European Union combined.
HRI suggests that there are over 112,500 women in prison across the region. Of these, 28% – or 31,400 women – are in prison for drug offences. This represents more than one in four incarcerated women in the region, demonstrating the impact of drug laws and drug enforcement on rates of imprisonment of women. In fact, drug offences outstrip by a considerable margin all others as the reason for women entering prison.
According to the report, the highest percentage of women in prisons for drug offences was found in Tajikistan (70%, or 420 out of 600), followed closely by Latvia (68%, or 191 out of 278). The lowest percentage was found in Poland, where only 82 women are in prison for drugs out of a total of 2,604, representing 3.1% of the entire female prison population.
The report notes that female population in Tajikistan is 3,519,360.
Harm Reduction International is one of the leading international non-governmental organisations promoting policies and practices that reduce the harms from psychoactive substances, harms that include not only the increased vulnerability to HIV and hepatitis C infection among people who use drugs, but also the negative social, health, economic and criminal impacts of drug laws and policies on individuals, communities and society.
Its vision is a world in which individuals and communities benefit from drug laws, policies and practices that promote health, dignity and human rights. HRI works to reduce drug-related harms by promoting evidence-based public health policy and practices and human rights-based approaches to drug policy through an integrated program of research, analysis, advocacy and collaboration with civil society partners.
