The webinar launched new research that examines the risks and restrictions facing civil society who are fighting to end the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Speakers shared how new COVID-19 restrictions undermine and dilute their efforts to carry out their work on HIV and AIDS.

Activism & Epidemics: Can civil society survive COVID-19 to end AIDS?

The programme for the IAS COVID-19 conference is now out!

The International AIDS Society (IAS) will host a virtual COVID-19 Conference on breaking COVID-19 research, policy analysis and frontline experience on the final day of AIDS 2020: Virtual

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global emergency that has now infected more than 3 million people worldwide and is already the most lethal new pandemic since the emergence of AIDS nearly 40 years ago.

In recognition of the urgent need to analyse research, review policy and exchange frontline experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IAS will host a virtual COVID-19 Conference shining a spotlight on the latest science, policy and practice of the pandemic.

10-11 July 2020, depending on your time zone

. The programme is currently scheduled to run from 7 am (PDT) / 4 pm (CEST) / 10 pm (CST) on Friday, 10 July, until 3 am (PDT) / 12 pm (CEST) / 6 pm (CST) on Saturday, 11 July.

The virtual COVID-19 Conference will take place online on the last day of 

, stand-alone programme of plenary, invited-speaker and abstract-driven sessions exclusively dedicated to the COVID-19 pandemic.

, who are both members of the US White House COVID-19 Task Force, and 

, Director of CAPRISA and Chair of the South African Ministry of Health COVID-19 Advisory Committee/COVID-19 MAC, among other experts working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response.

Many of the global experts gathering for 

 are also leading voices in SARS-CoV-2 virology, immunology, vaccines, clinical care and therapeutic guidelines, and trials. The virtual conference will provide a unique opportunity to help shape the evolving global response to COVID-19.

COVID-19 abstract submissions, including exploratory studies, are now open until

. Abstracts for the special one-day COVID-19 Conference will be considered in one of the following tracks:

 Basic science, pathogenesis, virology, immunology, inflammation

: Clinical science, testing (RT-PCR and serologic) and diagnoses, natural history, clinical care, ARDS care, therapeutics

: Epidemiology, transmission dynamics, prevention, vaccines

 Public health responses including physical distancing and community level efforts, programmes, policies, lifting restrictions, modelling

 Social, economic, political, human rights impacts of the pandemic and the response Register today and submit your COVID-19 abstract to the world’s first abstract-led conference on COVID-19 as we come together to advance the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. More information on the COVID-19 Conference can be found here.

to the world’s first abstract-led conference on COVID-19 as we come together to advance the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

IAS virtual COVID-19 Conference

The coronavirus pandemic has made ongoing crises affected by drug policy even more intense and urgent. "No Time Like the Present" will discuss incarceration, HIV/AIDS, and rule of law/human rights issues. Our speakers will provide perspectives from the global level, for the US and Philippines, and in New York City. Email borden@drcnet.org or call +1 202-236-8620 for further information.

"No Time Like the Present" is a side event for the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development organized by DRCNet Foundation, a US-based NGO in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/global, https://stopthedrugwar.org/philippines for information on our international programs.

Gang Badoy Capati, Executive Director, Rock Ed Philippines

Ruben Carranza, Senior Expert and Director of Reparative Justice Program, International Center for Transitional Justice

Ehab Salah, Adviser, Prisons and HIV & UNAIDS Focal Point, UN Office on Drugs and Crime

Ninan Varughese, Director a.i., UNAIDS New York Office

moderated by David Borden, Executive Director, DRCNet Foundation

The event will take place on 8th July at noon (Eastern Time)/midnight (Philippines time).

No time like the present: Drug policy reform is more urgent than ever

The Robert Carr Fund is the world’s leading international fund focused on funding regional and global networks led by and involving and serving inadequately served populations (ISPs). As a cooperative effort of donors and civil society, the Robert Carr Fund is structured to maximize participation, empowerment, equity, transparency and accountability in our fundraising and grant making.

The Robert Carr Fund works to mobilize and deliver core and strategic funding for regional and global networks to achieve four outcomes:

• Protecting and promoting human rights

• Mobilizing and monitoring national and international funding for human rights and health

• Building capacity of civil society and community networks.

Our goal: Improved health, inclusion and wellbeing for inadequately served populations (ISPs).

This satellite event will celebrate and showcase the work and impact of civil society networks in the HIV response and will launch the recently agreed Robert Carr Fund strategy charting the fund’s course through to 2024. It will also focus on the COVID 19 crisis, the impact on communities and networks and the work of civil society networks in responding to the global pandemic.

Robert Carr Fund Strategy Launch - AIDS2020 virtual satellite event

Featuring a broad range of exciting sessions developed by an international committee of HIV scientists, leaders, policy makers, researchers and advocates, AIDS 2020 covers the latest and most pressing topics in HIV. The programme ranges from HIV service delivery for internally displaced people and migrants, to ethics in HIV cure research and new data on HIV reservoirs in lymph nodes, the gut and brain.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020), to be held on 6-10 July 2020, will become the first virtual edition of the International AIDS Conference.

 will enable delegates to access and engage with the latest HIV science, advocacy and knowledge traditionally presented at the conference. It will be a compelling combination of virtual sessions and community networking, including exhibitions, workshops, the Global Village, satellites and pre-conferences, that will reach audiences around the world.

23rd International AIDS Conference - Virtual

Part 2 of a series on Psychedelic Community & Racial Justice.

The killing of George Floyd has once again put the spotlight on the ongoing systemic issues of racial injustice, police violence, and criminalization of marginalized BIPOC communities. The psychedelic community must stand in solidarity with wider activism for collective liberation, including and extending far beyond ending the war on drugs.

Where do we go from here? How do we build a better, more equitable and caring future?

How do we embody decolonization at the individual and collective level? On “Independence Day,” we’ll offer a roadmap via the intersections of Indigenous rights, intergenerational healing, and environmental, migrant, and racial justice.

Each utilizing a harm reduction lens, join psychedelic psychotherapist Danielle Herrera, decarceration strategist Paula Kahn, somatic practitioner Camille Barton, and community educator Mohawk Greene as moderator.

Camille Barton (they/them) is an artist, writer and somatic educator, working on the intersections of wellness, drug policy and transformative justice.

 (she/they) is Decarceration Strategist at Freedom for Immigrants and co-founder of Cosmovisiones Ancestrales, a pan-indigenous mutual aid collective that advocates for indigenous rights and environmental justice.

, MA, MFT (she/her), is a mixed-indigenous Harm Reduction Psychotherapist with Harm Reduction Therapy Center on their community programs team in San Francisco and a Psychedelic Psychotherapist with Sage Institute in Oakland, the first ever low-fee/sliding-scale psychedelic therapy clinic prioritizing access to those with historical inaccess to psychedelic integration and medicines.

 (they/them) is an Outreach Coordinator for DanceSafe, President of New York DanceSafe, and the Technical Program Manager at NEXT Distro.

Decolonization, Collective Liberation & Intersectional Solidarity

ARASA and CoAct are coming together to facilitate a series of webinars on harm reduction and drug policy in the Southern and East African region for community activists, people who use drugs, policy makers, and other stakeholders!

This first webinar will focus on Needle and Syringe Programmes and Community Mobilisation to share the importance of these programmes, practical information on how to keep safe when injecting, and discussing the need for community inclusion in these programmes.

The main facilitation for this webinar will be done by Mat Southwell from CoAct and the panel will include and expert from the South African Network of People who Use Drugs (SANPUD). Nathalie Rose, an expert on Drug Policy in the African region, will also lend her voice to the discussion.

#TreatUsRight! Needle and Syringe Programmes and Community Mobilisation

Historically marginalized and vulnerable identity groups must not be left outside of public health efforts or the pandemic will continue to spread. At the same time, economic programmes that address the economic consequences of COVID-19 need to address the hardships that migrants and fragile populations face during a crisis.
After a decade of global poverty levels dropping, this trend is expected to reverse this year. Therefore, leadership initiatives, multifaceted research, advocacy and practice is more relevant than ever. Club de Madrid, the largest forum of democratically elected Heads of State and Government and UNITE, a global network of around 120 parliamentarians to end infectious diseases as a global health threat, organise this Live Discussion to exchange views on how policymaking related to COVID-19's consequences can include a social inclusion dimension.

Speakers are former New Zealand Prime-Minister 

 (Club de Madrid Member), former Bosnia and Herzegovina Prime-Minister 

 (Club de Madrid Member), UNITE’s President

 MD (Member of Parliament, Portugal) and 

 (Member of Parliament, Uganda; Founder & President HEPS Uganda; UNITE Member). The virtual panel session will be moderated by 

 (Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy at AIDS Healthcare Foundation).

Full recording available here.

Inclusive governance to leave no one behind during and after COVID-19

An overview of the 2020 World Drug Report by Angela Me (Chief Research and Trend Analysis Branch, UNODC) and an ISSDP panel of experts. This webinar will run twice on 2nd July. The first will take place at

Please ensure you register for the correct webinar.

A scientific look at the 2020 World Drug Report

The EMCDDA is offering a new series of webinars around the theme of COVID-19. The purpose of the webinars is to help those working in the drugs field understand how drug users, and those supporting them, are coping with the pandemic and to share knowledge and experience. The webinars will give a voice to key professionals working in the drugs field and will allow for a panel discussion on emerging challenges. The sessions, chaired by EMCDDA staff members, are open to EMCDDA employees, the Reitox network and professionals working in the domain.

In the trial phase, the webinars will vary in length and frequency and will be adjusted following participants’ evaluations. The agency is testing the webinar format as a new EMCDDA product type.

This is the fifth EMCDDA webinar on the coronavirus.

 Team leader, Dark Web Team, European Cybercrime Centre, Europol

, Strategic analyst, Horizontal Operational Services, Europol

 School of Criminal Sciences, University of Lausanne

: 1 July 12.00-13.30 (WET/Lisbon) 13.00-14.30 (CET/Brussels)

COVID-19 and drug supply via darknet markets

Latin American prisons are among the most overcrowded in the world and generally do not have the capacity to effectively prevent, test and treat COVID-19. Although several countries in the region have announced measures to reduce the prison population, planned releases are insufficient, delayed in implementation, and in several cases arbitrarily exclude categories of people, such as those imprisoned for drug offences.

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, civil society in the region had been working for years in social, political and legal advocacy to improve conditions inside prisons, as well as to reform the criminal justice system and reduce the growing rates of incarceration. In the face of the current COVID-19 crisis, these same networks have mobilised to promote the reduction of the prison population, in several cases with success. Although the strategies take place in different political and legal contexts, civil society in the region faces common challenges, such as difficulties in establishing clear criteria and release mechanisms, the high percentage of people detained for drug offences, and the slowness of governments to proceed with the release of those who should be released according to the announced criteria.

.

This event will include the participation of representatives of these networks, particularly people who have been directly affected by the serious situation in the region's prisons and the excessive use of prison in Latin America.

Claudia Cardona, Psychologist for the Corporación Humanas and leader of Mujeres Libres, Colombia

Andrea Casamento, President of the Asociación Civil de Familiares de Detenidos (ACIFAD), Argentina

Luciana Boiteux, Lawyer and Professor at the Law School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinator of the Drug Policy Section of the Institute of Criminal Sciences, Brazil

Beatriz Maldonado Cruz, Leader of Mujeres Unidas por la Libertad, Mexico

Paula Litvachky, Executive Director of the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Argentina

Rodrigo Uprimny, Senior Researcher at Dejusticia and professor at the National University of Colombia.

COVID-19: Strategies to reduce the prison population in Latin America

This two-week summer school prepares professionals and students to meet the complex policy challenges that face Europe in the field of drugs. Involving scientific experts from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), but also university professors and policy-makers, it provides a multi-disciplinary and inclusive approach to the study of the drug problem in Europe and beyond. As this summer school will give 6 ECTS credits for its courses, students can easily transfer credits to other European universities using the ECTS system. Credits will be attributed formally to post graduate students (Master and PHD), but it is possible to allow undergraduate to use these credits in their home universities.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we will be delivering the European Drugs Summer School (EDSS) this year through online and remote teaching . Live sessions with experts and practitioners will be held from early to late afternoon (Lisbon Time, GMT +1). The sessions will be recorded and available for viewing later. Small individual exercises will be given every day and an exam will be offered to those who wish to earn credits.

We will announce the programme at the end of April. Students already registered will be contacted by ISCTE for further information. Please check the EDSS website for an announcement on fee reductions and the option to defer registration to next year.

Past Events