A/HRC/39/39 when procedural safeguards are absent, causing a disproportionate impact on women, children, minority groups and people who use drugs (see A/HRC/30/36). 65 39. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has also expressed concern about the frequent use of various forms of administrative detention that entail restrictions on fundamental rights, and considers to be worthy of attention detentions that are imposed as a means of controlling people who use drugs, especially when such detentions are framed as health interventions. The Working Group has held that administrative drug detention justified on the basis of health grounds can lead to involuntary commitment or compulsory drug treatment that is inconsistent with either international drug control conventions or international human rights law (see A/HRC/30/36). C. Prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment 40. Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including sexual abuse, by security forces has been reported in some States as means of investigating drug-related crimes and obtaining confessions and information from individuals accused of drug crimes. In some cases, law enforcement officials have intentionally withheld opioid substitution treatment from drug-dependent suspects as a way of obtaining confessions or other information (see A/HRC/30/65). 66 The Human Rights Committee has noted that such physical and mental pain and suffering associated with withdrawal symptoms may amount to torture or ill-treatment (see CCPR/C/RUS/CO/7). The denial of methadone treatment in custodial settings has been considered to be a violation of the right to be free from torture and ill-treatment, in certain circumstances (see A/HRC/22/53). 41. In treatment centres in Latin American countries, human rights violations including torture and ill-treatment have been reported.67 Similar concerns relating to torture and illtreatment have been reported in compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centres in East and South-East Asian countries.68 The Committee against Torture has also expressed concerns about reports of poor conditions in private drug rehabilitation centres and illtreatment inflicted upon persons admitted to them (see CAT/C/GTM/CO/5-6). 42. The Committee against Torture has expressed concerns regarding the use of solitary confinement as a “management method” in “compulsory isolation drug treatment centres”. The Committee recommended abolishing all forms of administrative detention, which confine individuals without due process and make them vulnerable to abuse (see CAT/C/CHN/CO/5). Caning as a punishment in drug trafficking cases has also been reported, which violates the human rights prohibition of cruel and inhuman punishment. 69 D. Eliminating prison overcrowding and violence 43. In the outcome document of the thirtieth special session, all States committed to addressing and eliminating prison overcrowding and violence. 70 44. United Nations human rights mechanisms have expressed concern about the unnecessary and disproportionate use of the criminal justice system for drug-related offences. In accordance with the International Drug Policy Consortium, some legal policies and practices lead to overcrowding of prisons and other places of deprivation of liberty, including tougher law and order approaches, mandatory use of pretrial detention, disproportionate lengths of sentence, frequent delays in the judicial system, poor 65 66 67 68 69 70 See also E/CN.4/1998/44/Add.2, A/HRC/27/48/Add.3 and A/HRC/16/47/Add.2. See also the submissions from the Centre for Legal and Social Studies. Submission from Open Society Foundations. See also www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/treatment-or-torture-applying-international-humanrights-standards-drug-detention. See https://idhdp.com/media/1083/compulsory-drug-detention-in-east-southeast-asia.pdf. Submission from Amnesty International. Recommendation 4 (m). 9