Paula Aguirre-Ospina
Colombian lawyer and activist with more than 10 years of experience in human rights, drug policy and transitional justice. She is a member of IDPC's Advisory Council as representative of Latin America and the Caribbean. She is currently the director of Elementa's office in Colombia.
Elementa is a feminist organization that works from a socio-legal and political approach, to contribute to the construction and regional strengthening of human rights through its offices in Colombia and Mexico. Elementa's areas of work are 1) truth, justice and reparation; 2) drug policy and human rights.
Session
Colombia has been a very visible country because of the dynamics related to drug policy. On the one hand, it is a country with more than 250,000 hectares of coca leaf, which has put us in the international spotlight for the cocaine market, and, on the other hand, it has made enormous progress in guaranteeing the rights of people who use drugs.
The personal dose of drugs has been protected in Colombia since 1994, and since then there has been a series of case law that has sought to protect the rights to free development of personality, personal autonomy and health. However, these guarantees have not been translated into the possibility of regulating the adult use of cannabis.
After more than 8 attempts, the Congress of the Republic has not supported the regulation to become a reality, so this presentation seeks to expose the path of a failed regulation, based on the political complexities that are built in Colombia and that place us in a scenario in which cannabis is not always the problem.