The Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (Colectivo de Estudios Drogas y Derecho, CEDD) brings together researchers from eleven Latin American countries with the goal of analyzing the impact of criminal law and legal practice surrounding illicit drugs.
Active researchers
Raúl Alejandro Corda
Argentina
Raúl Alejandro Corda has been a lawyer at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) since 1998. He is also a professor and researcher at the UBA. He has worked in the National Judiciary since 1993, and since 2001 he has been the Secretary of the Federal Criminal Court. He is a member of Intercambios Asociación Civil, an Argentinean NGO with experience in drug policies. He has published several publications individually and jointly on drug policies. He has also participated in the project "Drug Legislation in the Americas" (LEDA) of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD/OAS).
Publications
Gloria Rose Marie de Achá
Bolivia
Bolivian lawyer, member of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the Andean Action Association. She has been working for more than 15 years on anti-drug policies, citizen security policies, human rights and the rights of children and adolescents. She has worked in prisons and with groups of children living and working in the streets. She has published several articles, reports and analysis documents. She was responsible for the "Coca, Drugs and Development" area of the Documentation and Information Center-Bolivia. She has been an investigator for the Ombudsman's Office and legal advisor to the Vice-Ministry of Children and Youth. She coordinates a Latin American program on Juvenile Criminal Justice in Defense of Children-International (DNI).
Luciana Boiteux de Figueiredo
Brasil
Law Degree and Master's Degree in City Law from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. D. in Criminal Law from the University of São Paulo, and since 2007 Professor of Criminal Law at the Law School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, she is the coordinator of the Drug Policy and Human Rights Research Group at the same university. She studies topics such as drug policy and international human rights treaties, and the relationship between drug laws and prison systems, and judicial sentences in criminal cases. He is a member of advisory boards of several professional associations and societies in Brazil.
Rodrigo Uprimny Yepes
Colombia
Lawyer, PhD in Political Economy from the University of Amiens Picar die, with a DSU (master's degree) in Legal Sociology from the University of Paris II and a DEA (master's degree) in socioeconomics of development from the University of Paris I (IEDES). He currently serves as director of the drug policy line of the Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society - Dejusticia and as professor of Constitutional Law, Human Rights and Constitutional Theory at the National University of Bogotá.
Ernesto Cortés
Costa Rica
He holds a degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Costa Rica (UCR), a Master in Criminology with emphasis in Human Security from the University for International Cooperation (UCI) and a Master in Mental Health from the Miguel Hernández University (UMH). He is currently Executive Director of the Costa Rican Association for the Study and Intervention on Drugs (ACEID) and professor in the Interdisciplinary Master in Drug Dependence of the School of Pharmacy and the School of Anthropology of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). He is a representative in the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), the Latin American Network of People who Use Drugs (LANPUD) and is part of the Ibero-American Network of NGOs working on Drug Dependence (RIOD). In 2016 he was part of the official Costa Rican delegation to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS) as a representative of Civil Society.
Publications
Jorge Vicente Paladines
Ecuador
Lawyer (Summa Cum Laude) from the Universidad de Guayaquil; Master in Constitutional Law from the Universidad Andina "Simón Bolívar" (UASB); Master in Political Science from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO); Master in Criminal Sciences and German Criminal Dogmatic from the Georg August Universität-Göttingen; and, Doctor in Criminal Law from the Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala. He is a research professor of Critical Criminology and Criminal Policy at UASB and visiting professor at the Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales (IAEN) and Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala. He has conducted studies and research on indigenous justice, criminology of the criminal process, citizen security and police, and the penitentiary situation. He is currently Director of the Public Defender's Office of the province of Pichincha (Metropolitan District of Quito).
Publications
Catalina Pérez Correa
México
Professor and Researcher at the Legal Studies Division of the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE, Mexico). She holds a Master's and Doctorate in Law from Stanford University School of Law in California. She studies topics such as the administration of justice in Mexico, the functioning of the criminal justice system, drug policy in Latin America, the observance of social and legal norms, and criminal punishment and its effects. She has been a researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM, a professor at the UNAM Law School and a visiting researcher at Georgetown University.
Publications
• Unreasonable Punishments: Drug Laws and Incarceration in Latin America.
Ricardo Soberón Garrido
Perú
Peruvian lawyer, he is the founder and director of the Research Center "Drugs and Human Rights" (CIDDH), based in Lima. He holds an M.A. in International Relations, Peace Studies Department, University of Bradford, England. He is a university professor, analyst and consultant on drug control policies in the Andean region, security and border issues, and advisor to peasant organizations of coca growers (VRAE, FEPCACYL). Soberón is the author of several books and articles on drugs, administration of justice, and border issues. On August 5, 2011, he was appointed as Executive President of the Board of Directors of the National Commission for Development and Life without Drugs (Devida). Although he withstood harsh criticism and a campaign to remove him from Devida, Soberón was replaced in January 2012 after the resignation of Premier Salomón Lerner.
Gianella Bardazano
Uruguay
Associate Professor G.4 of Philosophy of Law and General Theory of Law at the Law School of the Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Lawyer. Master in Contemporary Philosophy. Doctoral candidate in Law. Member of the Institute of Legal and Social Studies of Uruguay (IELSUR).
Diego Piñol Arriagada
Chile
Sociologist from the Universidad de Chile, PhD in Psychology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. He has a Master's degree in Anthropology, and a diploma in crime and violence prevention at the local level, with young people and children. Since 2005 he has worked as a researcher at CESC, participating in various studies and evaluations of public policies in the areas of crime and violence prevention, prevention and treatment of problematic drug and alcohol consumption, prison system, criminal justice system, among other topics.
Publications
Isabel Pereira
Colombia
Isabel is a political scientist from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia (2008), and Master in Development Studies, with emphasis on conflict and peacebuilding from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Switzerland - IHEID (2015). Her interest focuses on the impact of drug policies on rural development, public health and armed conflict. She currently works as a senior researcher in the Drug Policy line of the Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia), with special emphasis on access to controlled medicines and palliative care, and implications of the peace process on drug policies in Colombia.
Publications
Luis Felipe Cruz
Colombia
Lawyer and final semester student of Sociology at the National University of Colombia. His area of research is the history and development of the armed conflict, as well as its relationship with drug trafficking. He has worked on the relationship between human rights guarantees, criminal procedure and penitentiary systems. She has also studied issues related to the quality of life in territories with coca crops and the impact of drug policies on access to social rights in coca-growing populations. He is currently part of the drug policy line of Dejusticia, and is part of the team that coordinates the Collective for the Study of Drugs and the Law (CEDD).
Advisors - Founders
Coletta Youngers
United States
She is an expert on international drug policy and drug policy developments in Latin America. She has worked for over 20 years for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) on human rights and political developments in the Andean region as well as on issues related to U.S. foreign policy toward the Andean region. Currently, she is a Senior Advisor and consultant to WOLA for a drug policy reform project and works as an independent consultant and representative for the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC). She is co-editor of Drugs and Democracy in Latin America. The Impact of U.S. Policy (2004). Prior to joining WOLA in 1987, Ms. Youngers was a project coordinator at Catholic Relief Services and part of the editorial staff of Noticias Aliadas, based in Lima, Peru.
Publications
.• Summary of the CEDD Regional Report.
• Unreasonable Punishments: Drug Laws and Incarceration in Latin America.
Pien Metaal
Netherlands
Pien Metaal is a researcher and coordinator of the Latin America project, part of the Drugs and Democracy program of the Transnational Institute (TNI). She holds a Master's degree in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Amsterdam. She has been part of the D&D team since 2002, although her involvement with the program began earlier.
He lived for several years in Latin America, mostly in the Andean region. During these years he dedicated his time to research, development and implementation of drug policies. His areas of expertise are issues relevant to drug policy and rural development and conflict resolution, coca/cocaine and harm reduction policies. They have long experience in working with local and international experts, both NGOs and government officials. He has written numerous articles and contributed to several books on drug policy issues in Latin America since 1996.
John Walsh
United States
He has coordinated WOLA's Drug Policy program since 2003, supporting the adoption of more effective and humane drug policies in the Americas. Respected for his combination of thorough policy analysis and effective advocacy, Walsh has helped position WOLA as a key voice in the growing movement to make human rights and the reduction of human rights violations central to drug policy. It also closely follows the political situation and developments in the Andean region, including democracy and human rights issues. In addition, it monitors U.S. relations with Andean governments, especially Venezuela and Bolivia.
Publications