• Tuesday, November 22, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Thousands of people are being left physically and psychologically scarred as countries around the world continue to breach international law in handing out brutal but 'ineffective' corporal punishment for drug offences, it has been claimed.

More than 40 states sentence people to caning, whipping and flogging in what their governments argue are punishments designed to deter drug use, a new report by Harm Reduction International (HRI) states.

But experts say that the punishments not only run contrary to international laws, but do nothing to help resolve problems with drug use, and have severe long-term psychological effects on the people who suffer them.

And while the use of the death penalty for drug offences often makes world headlines, campaigners claim the problem of judicially-sanctioned corporal punishment is more widespread and just as serious.

Eka Iakobishvili, author of the report ‘Inflicting Harm: Corporal Punishment for Drug and Alcohol Offences in Selected Countries’ told IPS: 'There is no data to show that these punishments have any effect on stopping people using drugs, but what is accepted is that drug dependency is just that — a dependency — and that imposing punishments on people will not stop them from using drugs.

'This is a ‘silent’ issue that is just as serious as the use of the death penalty for drug offences and one which, rather than helping drug dependents, can actually make their drug use worse.'

According to HRI, an NGO which works to promote harm reduction worldwide, more than 40 countries use judicially- sanctioned corporal punishment, either enforced through penal codes or, in some cases, through Sharia law, for a number of offences.

There is no comprehensive data on the worldwide imposition of judicial corporate sentences. But estimates from prisoners and non-governmental intelligence sources suggests that thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people, including women and children, are lashed, whipped, stoned or caned every year.

Although the punishments are not designed to be lethal, they inflict severe pain and some offenders have died as a result of their injuries. Victims have spoken of the horrific physical ordeal that they have gone through.

In a report by Amnesty International last year on judicial corporal punishment in Malaysia, where caning is imposed for drugs possession offences, one man who had been caned said of his experience: 'It was more than being in a motor accident. It was like cutting your arm open and putting chilli in it.' Another described it as 'like being burned and cut with a knife'.

The report also contained first-hand accounts of people passing out from pain and begging the guards beating them for mercy. Some said that they had suffered physically for months and even years afterwards following their punishment, while many have permanent scars on their bodies. They added they had also been left with long-term psychological problems because of the punishment. Some reported feeling mentally unstable and in permanent states of fear or anxiety while others described recurring nightmares about their punishments.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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