Event in Vienna will be livestreamed at 8 p.m. Manila on Wednesday. Organized by the DRCNet Foundation, drug policy and human rights experts will speak at the event, including Rights Report Philippines’ Carlos Conde.
VIENNA — Human rights advocates and drug policy experts will convene Wednesday at the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs to examine extrajudicial killings carried out under the banner of the war on drugs in the Philippines and elsewhere, a phenomenon they argue poses a mounting threat to democratic governance and the rules-based international order.
The side event, titled “Murder on the Land and the Sea: Extrajudicial Drug War Killings in the 21st Century,” is scheduled for 1:00–2:00 p.m. CET at Room M0E79 of the Vienna International Center. It will also be livestreamed via Zoom starting at 8 p.m. Manila time.
Organizers say the session will map documented episodes of drug war extrajudicial killings across the 21st century, situate them within their political and regional contexts, and assess their implications for the future of human rights and democratic institutions. The event draws a parallel between extrajudicial killings and other policy fault lines — including migration, social liberalization, and economic inequality — that have historically eroded democratic and human rights norms.
“Perhaps no other extreme found in drug policies today does so more than that of extrajudicial killings,” the event description states.
Panelists include David Borden, executive director of StoptheDrugWar.org; Carlos Conde of Rights Report Philippines and a former researcher with Human Rights Watch; Diego Garcia-Devis, drug policy program manager at the Open Society Foundations; and Annie Shiel, US advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict. The panel will be moderated by Kat Murti, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
The event is organized by the DRCNet Foundation, also known as StoptheDrugWar.org, with cosponsors that include the Drug Policy Alliance, the Washington Office on Latin America, No Peace Without Justice, the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court, and several other civil society organizations.
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs is the principal United Nations policymaking body on international drug control and meets annually in Vienna. Side events at CND sessions provide civil society organizations a platform to raise issues outside the formal intergovernmental agenda.
Further information is available atstopthedrugwar.org/ruleoflaw andstopthedrugwar.org/global. (Rights Report Philippines)