Resolution 55/12. Alternatives to imprisonment for certain offences as demand reduction strategies that promote public health and public safety

Recalling that the international drug control conventions establish, to varying degrees and in specific situations, that States may provide, either as an alternative to conviction or punishment or in addition to conviction or punishment, that drug-using offenders should undergo measures of treatment, education, aftercare, rehabilitation or social reintegration

Recalling also the Salvador Declaration on Comprehensive Strategies for Global Challenges: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Systems and Their Development in a Changing World, adopted by the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, held in Salvador, Brazil, from 12 to 19 April 2010, and endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 65/230 of 21 December 2010, in which Member States stressed the need to reinforce alternatives to imprisonment, which may include community service, restorative justice and electronic monitoring, and support rehabilitation and reintegration programmes, including those to correct offending behaviour, and educational and vocational programmes for prisoners,

Noting that, in addressing the world drug problem, the main objective is to ensure the health and welfare of individuals, and that providing alternatives to imprisonment has, for some Member States, provided a successful means of promoting social reintegration with full respect for human rights,

Recalling that, in the Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem, it is noted that there are limited alternatives to prosecution and imprisonment for drug-using offenders and that treatment services within the criminal justice system are frequently inadequate.

Stressing the importance of a multisectoral and fully coordinated approach in which multiple government agencies and non-governmental organizations within communities participate in order to support the development of a full continuum of policies and programmes that promote prevention, early detection and intervention, treatment, care, rehabilitation, social reintegration and related support services,

1. Encourages Member States, working within their legal frameworks and in compliance with applicable international law, to consider allowing the full implementation of drug-dependence treatment and care options for offenders, in particular, when appropriate, providing treatment as an alternative to incarceration, in order to help strengthen drug demand reduction policies while promoting both public health and public safety;

4. Invites Member States to consider including in their national anti-drug strategies alternative approaches to prosecution and imprisonment for drug-using offenders that could act as a valuable link between demand reduction programmes, particularly those relating to treatment, and the areas of law enforcement and justice;