Statement by Mr. Gustavo Gonzalez, UN Resident Coordinator in the Philippines at the Training of Trainers on The Comprehensive Approach to Treatment and Care for PWUD in Contact with the Justice System

Mabuhay!

A year and a half ago, the Philippines co-sponsored Human Rights Council Resolution 45/33 where the Government of the Philippines committed to engage in technical cooperation and capacity-building in key human rights areas, in partnership with the Philippines’ Commission of Human Rights, civil society, and the United Nations. This Resolution created the Joint Program for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Philippines, an innovative model of cooperation, trust-building, and partnership towards dignity of all people, with no one left behind.

Central to the goals of the Joint Programme is our collaborative work on increasing awareness and capacities of duty-bearers and rights-holders on human rights-based approaches to drug control. Under this thematic work area, we aim to uplift the lives of people who use drugs and their communities through people-centered, public health-focused, and evidenced-based responses for the full enjoyment of human rights.

Under the Joint Programme, we envision a community where people can realize their right to the highest attainable standard of health, where there is access, on a voluntary basis, to evidence-based drug dependence treatment. In addition, we imagine a society that fully promotes the right to an adequate standard of living, to social security, to life itself, and freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. A human rights-based approach to drug control also recognizes the right of the people to benefit from scientific progress and its applications. These rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent, and serve as central principles that guide the mandates of public civil servants.

It is in this context that the Joint Programme is implementing the Training of Trainers on the Comprehensive Approach to Treatment and Care for Persons who Use Drugs In Contact with the Justice System. In the next four days, you will learn from our esteemed master trainers about counseling interventions that can be applied effectively when working with persons who use drugs or with drug use disorders. I encourage you to learn well, to apply these scientifically proven methods in your work, tailoring your response to the immediate needs of your clients.

And the number of people who will potentially benefit you’re your work is quite significant. Persons with drug related offences, including persons who are using drugs and with drug use disorders, account for a large share of a population that is in the contact with the criminal justice system. This population includes over 130,000 PDLs in Philippine jails, 70% of whom are there for drug-related offenses. In addition, there are more than 49,000 PDLs in prisons, and close to 140,000 persons under probation, parole, and pardon. Therefore, a lot of responsibility rests on your shoulders; but this also means that you can positively impact the lives of more than 300,000 PDL and their families.

Deprivation of liberty or being under probation and parole must not be limiting conditions for availing efficient treatment and care services.

Persons deprived of liberty, including persons under probation or parole, must be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the person. They too have the right to a standard of health care that is equivalent to what is available to the general population.

We note however that many persons under probation or parole, upon release from custody, face social adaptation issues. They experience stigmatization from their families and communities and are often ostracized. This experience decreases their ability to find jobs or housing, to return to formal or vocational education, or to build or rebuild individual and social capital. Unless overall social determinants of health are addressed, they may be stuck in a vicious cycle of failed social integration, reoffending, reconviction, and social rejection.

It is therefore important that we all work together to ensure their full reintegration into society as a critical mandate of the criminal justice system. I note that the Parole and Probation Administration’s motto is “Redeeming lives, restoring relationships”. In your pursuit of ensuring adequate drug use treatment and rehabilitation services and restoring relationships of your clients with their families and communities, it is crucial that parole and probation officers are closely connected with other agencies of the criminal justice system and service units in the LGUs and CSOs, especially those for health, social care, housing, employment, and formal or vocational education.

It is good, therefore that half of you are parole and probation officers, and custodial officers from different parts of the country while other half are the local government unit service providers, CSOs.

I hope that in the next four days, you will learn not just the counseling techniques and methods but will also figure out how to connect better among your institutions, identify ways of making your work more efficient and convenient for your clients towards a more effective rehabilitation and reintegration of released persons back into their families and communities.

Thank you for the important work that you do and may the next four days contribute to your capacity in promoting the dignity and human rights of all persons.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!

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