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Harm Reduction

Harm reduction is a set of strategies that aim to reduce negative consequences of drug use, by mitigating the potential dangers and health risks. UNODC has significantly expanded its HIV/AIDS programme thanks to support from harm reduction-friendly donor countries, despite ambiguities on the issue within UN drug control agencies. There is a need for up-scaling of basic services for HIV/AIDS prevention and the 'frontline' of heroin prescription and drug consumption rooms. Could the 2008 CND or the 2009 Ministerial Meeting be the opportune moment to end ambiguity and to achieve full acceptance at the UN drug control agencies of harm reduction practices? What more can be done so improve UN system-wide coherence on the harm reduction issue?

The Vienna Declaration

The Vienna Declaration is a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. We are inviting scientists, health practitioners and the public to endorse this document in order to bring these issues to the attention of governments and international agencies, and to illustrate that drug policy reform is a matter of urgent international significance. We also welcome organizational endorsements.

At What Cost?

HIV and Human Rights Consequences of the Global "War on Drugs"

March 2009

A decade after governments worldwide pledged to achieve a "drug-free world," there is little evidence that the supply or demand of illicit drugs has been reduced. Instead, aggressive drug control policies have led to increased incarceration for minor offenses, human rights violations, and disease.

Tags: HIV/AIDS harm reduction

Human Rights, Health and Harm Reduction

‘Human Rights, Health and Harm Reduction: States’ Amnesia and Parallel Universes’ is the transcript of a keynote speech delivered by Professor Paul Hunt (then UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health). The speech focused on human rights and drug policy and contained some of the strongest comments to date from a UN human rights expert both in favour of harm reduction and against drug policies at the international and national levels that violate the rights of people who use drugs.

Tags: HIV/AIDS harm reduction human rights

Harm Reduction Worldwide

Harm Reduction Policy and Practice Worldwide
An overview of national support for harm reduction in policy and practice

Prepared by the International Harm Reduction Association in collaboration with the harm reduction networks from around the world
February 2009

Tags: HIV/AIDS harm reduction

Harm Reduction and Human Rights

IHRA’s HR2 programme released a report entitled ‘Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Response to Drug-Related HIV Epidemics’. The report provides a concise overview of the global situation in terms of drug-related HIV epidemics worldwide, with a particular focus on the regions of Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub Saharan Africa.

Harm Reduction and Human Rights
The Global Response to Drug-Related HIV Epidemics
HR2 - Harm Reduction and Human Rights
January 2009

Tags: HIV/AIDS harm reduction human rights

International Support for Harm Reduction

An overview of multi-lateral endorsement of harm reduction policy and practice

International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) & Human Rights Watch (HRW)
January 2009

A useful overview of UN endorsement of harm reduction measures; the legality of harm reduction services under the Drug Conventions; the obligation in human rights law to ensure access to harm reduction services and the global state of harm reduction, listing 82 countries and territories worldwide that presently support or tolerate harm reduction.

Tags: CND HIV/AIDS UN UNGASS conventions drug control harm reduction human rights

The INCB on Harm Reduction

Catching Up, or Holding Back?

March 2008

As in years past, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) highlights the problem of HIV epidemics fuelled by injection drug use in its 2007 annual report. The phrase harm reduction is used in the report without scare quotes but the Board cannot refrain from sounding cautionary notes.

Tags: HIV/AIDS INCB conventions harm reduction

The UN and Harm Reduction - Revisited

An unauthorised report on the outcomes of the 48th CND session

TNI Drug Policy Briefing 13, April 2005

The US pressure on the UNODC to withdraw support from needle exchange and other harm reduction approaches backfired at the 48th session of the CND in March 2005. Delegates from around the globe stood up to defend the overwhelming evidence that harm reduction measures are effective against the spread of HIV/AIDS. In this briefing TNI analyses the proceedings and results of the CND meeting in Vienna in March 2005, and outlines several options for follow-up and recommends next steps to take.