Ms Julie Hannah:

Just to agree with and build on what everyone who has spoken before me said, I will draw the Senator's attention to a few pieces of research that have been done around drug courts over the years. The US-based Social Science Research Council put out a fairly comprehensive study on drug courts, urging governments to move away from that model based on the evidence they reviewed. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime has recently produced a publication around drug courts in west Africa. From the UN human rights system, drug courts have been raised as a concern by a range of UN human rights mechanisms, including the UN special rapporteur on the right to health, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges. Of course, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has repeatedly cautioned against the use of drug courts over the years because of the human rights issues they both produce and do not eliminate.

In Brazil, which I planned to reflect on a bit in my opening remarks-----