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OAS Meeting on Drug Treatment Courts Concludes in Chile

With a series of practical exercises on the operation of Drug Treatment Courts (DTC), an international workshop held by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the government of Chile concluded today, an event in which more than 250 judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and treatment professionals from Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, the United States, Canada, and Belgium took part.

The three-day workshop consisted of two parts, one theoretical and one practical, the latter including the review of actual cases in which the accused voluntarily undergo a treatment program under court supervision. The DTCs are part of an experience that started more than 20 years ago in the region and seeks to be an alternative to prison for people who have committed minor offenses and are dependent on drugs.

Judge Alberto Amiot, visiting justice of Chile to the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CIDAD) of the OAS, and also Judge of the Second Appeals Court, coordinated the simulations with the help of the legal and psychosocial team. The simulations were followed by actual hearings coordinated by Judge Jorge Sáez and his team from the Southern Zone of the Chilean capital.

The Head of the Division of Social Reinsertion of the Ministry of Justice of Chile, Sebastián Valenzuela Agüero, who made the closing address of this intensive workshop, stressed "the importance of this model for its innovation in the context of public policy on citizen security and effective implementation of therapeutic jurisprudence, allowing a holistic intervention in criminal matters which combines legal and public health efforts."

During the meeting, participants discussed the operation of this model of courts in the region along with the new challenges it faces, in order to seek synergies between different legal and public health actors regarding the relevance of having a public policy of the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders, that responds effectively and efficiently to the offending population that is drug dependent, thus contributing to the security of citizens of the countries of the hemisphere.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, who opened the meeting via a video message, reiterated the interest of the organization in serving as a "bridge of horizontal communication between governments, and also as an instrument for the implementation of actions leading to the design of better drug policy." He also urged that "the statements of the Hemispheric Drug Strategy adopted by Member States take shape not just in political language, but also, and above all, that they be translated into the search for comprehensive solutions that contemplate seeing the drug dependent offender from a multidimensional perspective."

The event was co-organized by the Executive Secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the OAS, the United States Department of Justice, the Supreme Court of Chile, the Chilean Public Ministry, and the National Service for Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Consumption of Drugs and Alcohol. This activity is part of the Program of Drug Treatment Courts in the Americas, an OAS initiative funded by the governments of Canada and the United States.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-463/12