A/HRC/10/44 page 16 Rights in respect to the question of the death penalty and request a more comprehensive legal study on the compatibility of the death penalty with the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment under present human rights law. IV. APPLYING A HUMAN RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO DRUG POLICIES A. International drug policies and human rights: two separate issues 49. A number of human rights have been affected by how drug control policies are currently shaped, both at the international and national levels. This is particularly true for the two ends of the “drug continuum”, which share the brunt of the burden of current drug-control policies: the production side, because those who cultivate the plants used to produce narcotic drugs depend on them for their livelihood; and the consumer side (currently 26 million people - about 0.6 per cent of the planet’s adult population), because it runs a greatly increased risk of discrimination, criminalization and, as a result, of falling victim to a large range of human rights violations. 50. Contemporary drug policies have also diverted attention, and much-needed resources, from the public health sphere. For instance, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the main United Nations department working on drug control, in its World Drug Report 2008, concluded that “public health, the first principle of drug control, has receded from that position, overshadowed by the concern with public security”.32 51. While the three major conventions relating to drugs, although referring to prevention and rehabilitation,33 left it to individual States to devise their policies in this area, the international drug control system has evolved practically detached from the United Nations human rights machinery, which could have provided valuable guidance on how the above references should be interpreted, taking into account international human rights norms. As a result, only in 1998 did the Declaration on the Guiding Principles of Demand Reduction include a reference to human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and highlighted principles such as participation of the community, sensitivity to culture and gender.34 In addition, the annual General Assembly resolutions on countering the world drug problem include references to human rights and the Charter of the United Nations.35 32 See the “second unintended consequence” in the World Drug Report 2008, p. 216. 33 For example, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, arts. 36.1.b and 38; the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971, arts. 20 and 22; and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988, art. 3.4. b, c, and d. 34 General Assembly resolution S-20/3, annex, para. 8. 35 For example, General Assembly resolution 62/176, para. 1.