The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

Global Compact’s principles are “the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory
labor” (principle four) and “the effective abolition of child labor” (principle five). 320
In correspondence with Human Rights Watch, UNODC’s deputy executive director noted that
UNODC’s policy (on the handling of reports of human rights abuses witnessed or received by
staff or those implementing UNODC projects) is that “any reports will be raised and
addressed” and that “[a]n internal policy for UNODC, in the form of a guidance note for our
staff, is being prepared and will be distributed to our field network when completed.” 321
The correspondence notes that one of the purposes of UNODC’s dialogue with the
Vietnamese government is to “improve the quality of treatment services and reduce the
likelihood of human rights violations.” However, human rights abuses were not identified
as an indicator for monitoring.
All UNODC projects have a monitoring and evaluation framework… In the
case of the activities conducted in relation to the centers our process
indicators have focused on the numbers of staff with improved knowledge
about what constitutes effective drug treatment programmes, the number
of quality treatment services for drug users, the extent of improved
treatment outcomes, the improvement of existing structures and
approaches, among others. 322
Despite monitoring and evaluation of project H68 project sites by UNODC staff, neither
UNODC’s project documents nor its mid-term evaluation of the project acknowledge that
that forced labor occurs in the centers. 323 The sole reference to the issue of labor in the
mid-term evaluation of project H68 is the observation that:
320 UN Global Compact, "About the UN Global Compact: The Ten Principles," at
http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/index.html (accessed May 1, 2011). These are
also Fundamental Principles two and three of the ILO Declaration of 1998 which is binding on all ILO member states.
321 Letter from Sandeep Chawla, deputy executive director, UNODC, to Human Rights Watch, August 10, 2011.
322 Letter from Sandeep Chawla, deputy executive director, UNODC, to Human Rights Watch, August 10, 2011.
323 UNODC, “VIEH68: technical assistance to Treatment and Rehabilitation at Institutional and Community Level,
2006 Annual Project Progress Report,” 2006; UNODC, “VIEH68: technical assistance to Treatment and
Rehabilitation at Institutional and Community Level, 2007 Annual Project Progress Report,” 2007; UNODC, “VIEH68:
technical assistance to Treatment and Rehabilitation at Institutional and Community Level, 2008 Annual Project
Progress Report,” 2008; UNODC, “VIEH68: technical assistance to Treatment and Rehabilitation at Institutional and
Community Level, 2009 Annual Project Progress Report,” 2009; UNODC, “Mid-term Evaluation Report AD/VIE/H68:
Technical Assistance to Treatment and Rehabilitation at Institutional and Community Level,” 2008,
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/evaluation/project-evaluations-2007.html (accessed April 11, 2011).
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