Damon Barrett

(January 2023)

Damon Barrett, Frida Petersson, Russell Turner Harm Reduction Journal – 2022-01-01

Abstract:
Access for legal minors to needle and syringe programmes raises a number of practical, legal and ethical challenges that traverse clinical practice, child protection and child rights. This article addresses the current legal age restriction on access to needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) in Sweden. Based on legislation and legislative preparatory works, it traces the rationale for retaining an age restriction in the context of a policy priority to improve access for people who inject drugs. Building on threshold theory and child rights literature, the article unpacks the apparent tension between protecting the low threshold nature of service provision, child protection duties of healthcare staff, and the best interests of the child. It explores whether this tension could be alleviated through replacing a legal age restriction for all with best interests assessments for each individual, and discusses the potential ethical and practical challenges involved in such a change. Read more …

(January 2022)

T. H. Karlsen, N. Sheron, S. Zelber-Sagi, P. Carrieri, G. Dusheiko, E. Bugianesi, R. Pryke, S. J. Hutchinson, B. Sangro, N. K. Martin, M. Cecchini, M. A. Dirac, A. Belloni, M. Serra-Burriel, C. Y. Ponsioen, B. Sheena, A. Lerouge, M. Devaux, N. Scott, M. Hellard, H. J. Verkade, E. Sturm, G. Marchesini, H. Yki-Järvinen, C. D. Byrne, G. Targher, A. Tur-Sinai, Damon Barrett, et al The Lancet – 2022-01-01, Vol 399, Issue 10319, P61-116

Abstract:
Liver diseases have become a major health threat across Europe, and the face of European hepatology is changing due to the cure of viral hepatitis C and the control of chronic viral hepatitis B, the increasingly widespread unhealthy use of alcohol, the epidemic of obesity, and undiagnosed or untreated liver disease in migrant populations. Consequently, Europe is facing a looming syndemic, in which socioeconomic and health inequities combine to adversely affect liver disease prevalence, outcomes, and opportunities to receive care. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified pre-existing challenges to uniform implementation of policies and equity of access to care in Europe, arising from national borders and the cultural and historical heterogeneity of European societies. Read more …

(2020)

John Tobin, Damon Barrett. Foundations of Global Health and Human Rights. L.O. Gostin and B.M. Meier (eds) – 2020-01-01, 67-88

Abstract:
This chapter reviews the scope and meaning of the right to health under international law. Drawing on public health discourses and expanding beyond a right to health care, the contours of the right to health have been clarified—to encompass a wide range of social, political, and economic determinants of health—by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in its General Comment 14, by academics in the fields of law and public health, and by national governments in their domestic laws and judicial interpretations. The normative content of the right to health now provides a foundation for state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health; limitations on other rights for public health goals; the right’s essential attributes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality; the minimum core obligations of the right to health; and the progressive realization of health-related human rights. Read more …

(2020)

Damon Barrett, Brill/Nijhoff, ISBN 978-90-04-41058-9

Abstract:
Responding to the harms caused by drugs is one of the most challenging social policy issues of our time. In Child Rights and Drug Control on International Law, Damon Barrett explores the meaning of the child’s right to protection from drugs under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the relationship between this right and the UN drug control conventions. Adopting a critical approach, the book traces the intersecting histories of the treaties, the role of child rights in global drug policy discourse, and the practice of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. It invites us to reflect upon the potential for child rights to provide justification for state actions associated with wider human rights risks. Read more …

(2020)

Damon Barrett, Diederik Lohman, International Development Policy, 12, 246-260

Abstract:
This paper focuses on the child rights implications of bringing new substances into the global drug control regime. Focusing on the examples of ketamine and khat, which in turn highlight the issues of access to medicines (SDG 3) and child labour (SDG 8), it outlines the process for placing substances under international control and the child rights implications of such decisions. To date, however, child rights law has not been featured in this procedure. While child rights law may not be determinative in terms of outcome, the chapter focuses on an important process in global drug policy governance. If decisions to place substances under international control within the drug control architecture of the United Nations engage the obligations of child rights treaties, then there is a strong case for formally taking the obligations arising under those treaties into account. Read more …

(2020)

D. Lohman, Damon Barrett, BMC International Health and Human Rights – 2020-01-01

Abstract:
Recent years have seen contentious debate about efforts to schedule medicines such as ketamine and tramadol under the international drug control conventions. Proponents argue that misuse poses a significant risk to public health and that scheduling would help address these problems. However, scheduling of medicines can negatively affect their availability, accessibility and affordability for medical purposes, with serious health consequences for patients, especially in low and middle-income countries. The current process for scheduling medicines under the international drug control conventions does not provide sufficient normative standards through which balanced decisions may be reached. It is undemocratic in its structure and opaque in its reasoning. In this article, we argue that such decisions represent de facto limitations on the right to health and may engage the principle of non-retrogression. Using the examples of ketamine and tramadol, we propose that standard legal tests in international human rights law can help to address the normative and democratic deficits in the system and produce more rigorous, fairer and more transparent decisions. Read more …

(2019)

Damon Barrett, John Tobin, J. Tobin (ed) The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Commentary

Abstract:
This chapter presents a legal analysis of Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, addressing the child’s right to protection from drugs and involvement in the drug trade. Read more …

(January 2018)

Rick Lines, Damon Barrett, International Community Law Review, 20 (5), 436-455

Abstract:
Treaty interpretation has long been a subject of interest for international legal scholars. However, it is only recently that advocates for drug policy reform have taken up these questions. This article examines the proposition put forward by several authors that a legally regulated market in cannabis may be permissible under the international drug control treaties if considered as a policy ‘experiment’. These authors contend that such measures conform to the general obligation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to limit uses of cannabis ‘strictly to medical and scientific purposes’. Reviewing this position using the formal methods set out in Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, we conclude the interpretation proposed is untenable. While we share with these authors the objective of wider drug policy reform, we find the arguments supporting this position weak, and based on absent, flawed or incomplete interpretive methodology. Read more …

(January 2018)

Damon Barrett, Report, Council of Europe, Pompidou Group

Abstract:
This report explores the application of human rights standards and tests to drug policies in the Europe. Basic principles and tests are set out, and a conceptual model is presented. Illustrative examples including random school drug testing, prison healthcare and European funding for cross-border trafficking are applied. Read more …

(January 2017)

Damon Barrett, Human Rights Law Review, 17, 205-229

Abstract:
This article investigates whether the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labour Organization Convention No 182 contribute to systemic human rights risks in the implementation of the UN drug control treaties. It focuses on the death penalty for drug offences applied to adults as part of national legislative frameworks relating to drug control. At no time has either the Committee on the Rights of the Child or the ILO Committee of Experts challenged this practice, despite being informed repeatedly that it is employed pursuant to treaty obligations under the CRC and ILO 182 respectively. On some occasions the Committees have even appeared to welcome the implementation of these laws. This article sets out why this is cause for concern, the influence of the drug control treaties on the understanding of child rights provisions and why this issue is not outside the mandates of the Committees for commentary. Read more …

(December 2013)

Damon Barrett, Neil Hunt, Claudia Stoicescu, Harm Reduction International Reports

Abstract:
Young people who inject drugs have specific developmental, social and environmental vulnerabilities. They are less likely to use harm reduction and treatment services and are less informed about risks and their rights. Early onset of injecting, and being a new injector, have been associated with increased risks of HIV and hepatitis C transmission, while specific groups of young people, especially those that are street involved, are at considerably higher risk. The legal status of being a minor, meanwhile, raises challenges for both achieving a better understanding of the situation and for the development of targeted harm reduction interventions. This report is the first attempt to provide a global snapshot of available data on injecting drug use among children and young people under the age of 18. Based on desk research and expert questionnaires it finds that injecting among under-18s represents a data ‘blind spot’ impeding our ability to assess service need and to estimate budgetary implications. Available studies that have looked at injecting among this age group, however, provide important insights from every region and make a clear case for more action. Read more …

(January 2011)

Damon Barrett, ISBN 9781617700187, New York, NY: International Debate Education Association, Cop.

Abstract:
A unique collection of original essays that investigates the impacts of the war on drugs on children and young people. With contributions from around the world and utilizing a wide range of styles and approaches including ethnographic studies, personal accounts and interviews, the book asks three fundamental questions: What have been the costs to children of the war on drugs? Is the protection of children from drugs a solid justification for current policies? What kinds of public fears and preconceptions exist in relation to drugs and the drug trade? Read more …

(January 2008)

Damon Barrett, Yusuf Azad, Rick Lines, p193 in S. Matic et al (eds) Progress on implementing the Dublin Declaration on Partnership to Fight HIV/AIDS in Europe and Central Asia, WHO Europe

Abstract:
Stigma and discrimination affect many areas of policy-making and government decision-making having to do with HIV/AIDS, and therefore affect the implementation of many actions in the Declaration. To truly measure progress on Action 20, it is necessary to make a much broader and more holistic analysis of national compliance with Dublin Declaration commitments as a whole. Read more …

(January 2007)

Damon Barrett, Vinodh Jaichand, South African Journal of Human Rights, Vol 23, 2007 – Issue 3

Abstract:
As states are increasingly urged to privatise water supply and delivery by the Bretton Woods institutions, there are no additional norms to hold multinational corporations accountable to anyone but their shareholders. Though there is a human right to water, if multinational corporations violate that right the victims’ access to the courts may be hampered by the lack of financial resources to gain redress. To this extent, privatisation is eroding human rights implementation. Strategically, it may be worthwhile to consider litigating in the United Kingdom’s courts where the ‘interest of justice’ so demands, even though there is a forum for adjudication in the country where the violation took place. Read more …