Profile
Khalid Tinasti

Khalid Tinasti

Chargé d'enseignement Invité/ Visiting lecturer
Senior Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP)
MINT195 -International Drug Policy

Profile

 

Khalid Tinasti is a strategic public policy expert and academic working at the intersection of public affairs, international drug policy, and global health. He currently serves as Senior Researcher at the CCDP, Advisor to the Joint Action on Drug Elimination (JADE) programme at Pax Sapiens (since 2025), and a member of the United Nations Expert Panel on the Global Drug Policy Review. From 2024 to 2025, he advised the CN-US Track II Dialogue on fentanyl precursors at INHR, and previously served as External Advisor on international drug policy to the Global Health Section of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (2023-24).

Khalid is also a Visiting Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Programmes at the Geneva Graduate Institute, where he designs and teaches the graduate-level course on international drug policy and supervises Master’s theses in the field. Since 2020, he has served as David F. Musto Visiting Scholar at the International Center for Drug Policy Studies at the University of Shanghai.

From 2013 to 2021, Khalid served first as Policy Analyst and later as Executive Secretary at the Secretariat of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Before that, he worked as an independent consultant for organisations including UNAIDS, WHO, and the Geneva Graduate Institute. Earlier in his career, he served as Press and Communications Officer in the office of the French Minister of Urban Cohesion and as an Administrative Officer in Gabon.

Khalid holds a PhD in political science from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has held research fellowships at the Global Health Programme at the Geneva Graduate Institute (2015-16), the Global Studies Institute at the University of Geneva (2018-2021), and an honorary fellowship at Swansea University (2016-20). A trusted advisor to governments and international organisations, he brings over a decade of experience navigating complex negotiations, shaping policy discussions, and building influence across global public health and drug policy arenas. His work is regularly published in peer-reviewed journals and featured in major international media outlets.


 

Select publications


Books

  • Tinasti K. (2026) International Drug Control Law: Trends and Reform Challenges. London: Anthem Press.
  • Bewley-Taylor DR, Tinasti K, Eds. (2020) Research Handbook on International Drug Policy. London: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Buxton J, Chinery-Hesse M, Tinasti K, Eds. (2020) Drug Policies and Development: Conflict and Coexistence. Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff 
  • Tinasti K (2014) Le Gabon entre démocratie et régime autoritaire. Paris: L’Harmattan 

Peer-reviewed journals

  • Outaleb, L., Tinasti, K., & Sabir, M. (2026). Social reintegration of methadone maintenance patients in Morocco: barriers and opportunities. Drugs, Habits and Social Policy, 1-11.
  • Tinasti K. (2022) “Toward the Emergence of Compulsory Treatment for Drug Use in Morocco?” Health and Human Rights 24(1): 171-174.
  • Gallop G, Tinasti K (2021) Drogen- oder Politikproblem? Pragmatische Wege zur Beendigung der Prohibition. rausch – Wiener Zeitschrift für Suchttherapie
  • Ramos-Horta J, Tinasti K (2020) The World Drug Policy Problem, Interview with José Ramos-Horta. International Development Policy 
  • Tinasti K (2020) The neo-patrimonial ‘use’ of drugs in electoral processes. International Development Policy 
  • Tinasti K, Buxton J, Chinery-Hesse M (2020) Are Barriers to Sustainable Development Endogenous to Drug Control Policies? International Development Policy 
  • Tinasti K (2020) International drug control governance: Is a joint UN programme on drugs relevant? International Journal of Drug Policy
  • Snapp Z, Tinasti K, Herrera J (2019) Regulation of illegal drugs: state control and fragile institutional capacity. Journal of Illicit Economies and Development 
  • Tinasti K, Kronig-Romero N, Goulão J, Stoltenberg C, Kazatchkine M, Clark H (2019) International drug control system: the need for guiding principles for public health. The Lancet 
  • Tinasti K (2019) Towards the End of the Global War on Drugs. Brown Journal of World Affairs 
  • Tinasti K (2018) HIV and AIDS among adolescents who use drugs: opportunities for drug policy reform within the sustainable development agenda. Journal of the International AIDS Society 
  • Barbosa I, Versfeld A, Tinasti K, Terlikbayeva A (2017) Addressing deprivation of liberty, human mobility and tuberculosis in 2018. Public Health Action
  • Tinasti K, Barbosa I (2017) The influence of Global Players on the drug control system: an analysis of the role of the Russian Federation. Drugs and Alcohol Today
  • Tinasti K, Fordham A, Bewley-Taylor DR (2017) WHO and UNDP change in leadership: what views on drug policy and harm reduction? Drug Science, Policy and Law
  • Tinasti K, Ravishankar S, Zuniga JM (2016) Discrimination, HIV among people who use drugs and the UNGASS 2016 on the world drug problem. Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care
  • Tinasti K, Audoin B, Jomier B, Delfraissy JF, Lévy Y, Barré-Sinoussi F (2016) Cities central to HIV response for people who use drugs. The Lancet HIV
  • Al-Shazly F, Tinasti K (2016) Incarceration or mandatory treatment: Drug Use and the Law in MENA. International Journal of Drug Policy

Newspapers and media
    
Opinion pieces and interviews published in Le Temps, RTS Radio, Radio Cité Genève (Switzerland), The Hill (US), Le Monde, Les Echos, L’Express, L’Obs, La Croix, The Conversation (France), L’Economiste, TelQuel, AlAhdat AlMaghribyia, 2M TV, Al Aoula TV, Médi1 TV, 2M Radio, Atlantic Radio, MAP, Médias24 (Morocco), Daily Maverick (South Africa), Millennium (Italy), Daily Star (Bangladesh), L’Orient-Le Jour (Lebanon), Der Standard (Austria), Modern Ghana (Ghana), HuffPost Maghreb, EUobserver, Jeune Afrique and Southeast Asia Globe.  

Reports and policy analysis

  • Blickman T, Tinasti K (2021) Drug Policy and City Government. Global Commission on Drug Policy
  • Tinasti K (2019) 实现可持续发展的毒品政策 (Drug Policies to Achieve Sustainable Development), Annual Report on International Drug Control. David F. Musto Center for Drugs and National Security Studies, Shanghai University
  • Husbands R, Tinasti K, Podlekareva D (2019) Drug Policy and Deprivation of Liberty. Global Commission on Drug Policy
  • Nougier M, Tinasti K (2018) Drug Policy and the Sustainable Development Agenda. Global Commission on Drug Policy
  • Tinasti K (2018) Cannabis and the drug law in Tunisia: A reform rooted in social justice claims. Global Drug Policy Observatory, Swansea University 
  • Tinasti K (2016) Brazil and francophone Africa, opportunities and challenges. BRICS Policy Center - Igarapé Institute 
  • Tinasti K (2015) UNGASS 2016 on the world drug problem: Involving the Geneva-based international organizations in the global drug policies debate. Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
  • Matlin SA, Told M, Tinasti K (2015) Time to Revisit Drug Policies: Towards the UNGA Special Session on Drugs. A Brief for Policy-Makers. Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies  
  • Ball AL, Tinasti K (2014) HIV, Universal Health Coverage and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. World Health Organization
  • Tinasti K, Burzynski R (2013) Meeting the HIV treatment and health needs of gay men and other men who have sex with men. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)