Women and Drug Policies in Latin America: A Critical Review of the United Nations Resolution ‘Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in Drug-Related Policies and Programmes’

Since the 2000s the impact of the international system of drug control has moved centre stage and with it the visibility of women involved in drug trafficking and drug use. International bodies and civil society organisations establish discursive consensus on women’s realities in relation to drugs and the need for a gender perspective in drug policies. In March 2016, United Nations member states gathered at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs approved the resolution ‘Mainstreaming a gender perspective in drug-related policies and programmes’. In this article, the contents of the resolution are discussed against the experiences of incarcerated women in Mexico City. In contrast to the image of women-as-victims sustained by the mainstream gender perspective, it is argued that agency and victimisation coexist and that such a relationship must set the basis for women-centred drug policy.