Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (A/HRC/32/32)

100. States should provide prevention, harm reduction and dependence treatment services, without discrimination, and allocate a budget sufficient to the progressive realization of the right to health. These are not competing or alternative strategies but required components of a comprehensive approach to enable adolescents to seek the health services and information they are entitled to receive. All such services should comply with the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality framework.

104. There is an alarming lack of HIV-related harm reduction services designed for adolescents who inject drugs, as well as multiple barriers to accessing such services, including age restrictions in law, and absence of data on injecting drug use among children and young people in most countries.88 Technical guidelines on HIV prevention, treatment care and support for young people who inject drugs have been developed, 89 and should form the basis of States’ efforts in this regard.

105. The growing international debate and efforts by certain States to seek alternatives to punitive or repressive drug policies, including decriminalization and legal regulation, are welcome.

113. (…) (b) Seek alternatives to punitive or repressive drug control policies, including decriminalization and legal regulation and control, and nurture the international debate on these issues, within which the right to health must remain central.

114. (…) (a) Close without delay all drug detention centres for adolescents, ensure the provision of prevention, harm reduction and dependence treatment services, without discrimination, and allocate a budget sufficient for the progressive realization of the right to health.