A/HRC/39/39 treatment of women prisoners and offenders, and address various issues including alternatives to incarceration. 52. In their submissions, stakeholders referred to several alternative and additional measures to incarceration. In the Russian Federation, a person who voluntarily applies for treatment in connection with the consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances is exempted from “administrative responsibility” for this offence. In Sweden, the sanction for personal use of drugs is a fine, not imprisonment. In some countries in West Africa, including Cape Verde, Senegal and Togo, there is a choice between imprisonment and a fine, for low-level offences. In Cambodia, people who use drugs and drug traffickers have been sentenced to community service, given the serious overcrowding in prisons. In Costa Rica, the Public Defender’s Office has sought to divert women who use drugs away from the criminal justice system and to offer them services such as counselling, drug treatment and job training. Probation has also been used in some countries. 75 53. In some States, “drug courts”76 offer people accused of drug use a choice between imprisonment and treatment. Given that the decision to undertake treatment is made under the threat of imprisonment, coercion may influence such a decision. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights considered that drug courts which offer treatment as an alternative to imprisonment fail to conform to a public health approach and do not tackle mistreatment and human rights violations that occur in treatment centres, which are rarely investigated.77 54. Drug courts are claimed to reduce incarceration rates and to represent a more humane approach than in the criminal justice process. However, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and other stakeholders, noted in their submissions that there was no credible evidence to support such claims. Furthermore, they stated that the drug court system caused considerable harm to participants and frequently resulted in serious human rights violations. Such violations were exacerbated by racial and gender biases.78 55. The propensity for human rights violations in the context of drug courts is such that the London School of Economics and Political Science has cautioned against the continued roll-out of drug courts in countries where oversight and monitoring mechanisms are absent.79 2. Proportionate sentencing and decriminalization of certain crimes 56. Proportionate sentencing is an essential requirement of an effective and fair criminal justice system. It requires that custodial sentences be imposed as a measure of last resort and applied proportionately to meet a pressing societal need (see E/CN.4/2006/7 and CAT/OP/MDV/1). In many States, low-level offences such as small-scale drug dealing or trafficking are punished with harsher penalties than other serious crimes, raising questions about proportionate sentencing. 80 Furthermore, simple possession of drugs for personal use can result in significant terms of mandatory imprisonment. 81 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 Submissions from the Russian Federation, Sweden, Penal Reform International, the Washington Office on Latin America, EQUIS Justicia para las Mujeres, the International Drug Policy Consortium and Dejusticia. See also http://fileserver.idpc.net/library/Drug-laws-in-West-Africa_ENGLISH.PDF. See www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/drug-courts-equivocal-evidence-popularintervention-20150518.pdf. See www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/PretrialDetention.pdf and submissions from the Centre for Legal and Social Studies and Fair Trials. Submissions from the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Fair Trials, Open Society Foundations and the London School of Economics. See also http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/assets/misc/phr_drugcourts_report_singlepages.pdf. Submission from the London School of Economics. Submissions from Penal Reform International and Fair Trials. Submissions from Penal Reform International and Human Rights Watch. See also www.tni.org/files/download/dlr20_1.pdf. 11