The “zero draft” civil society declaration was developed by national, regional, global and constituency-based organisations to assist in coordinating civil society advocacy with UN member States at the High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York next June.
Ten years after introducing one of Europe's most draconian drug laws, the Polish Parliament has voted to amend it, in an effort to draw a greater distinction between drug user and drug dealer.
New Zealand’s 35-year-old drug law is in for a major shake-up if the New Zealand Government adopts all recommendations for reform made in a recent drug law review conducted by the independent Law Commission.
Avaaz has launched a major campaign on drug policy. The campaign aims to gather 1 million signatures calling on UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to set out a new direction for national and international policies on controlled drugs. The petition will be presented to the UN in New York on 2 June, to coincide with the publication of the report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The campaign's core messages are:
The war on drugs has failed
Alternative approaches are feasible
It is high time to break the taboo and pursue a new direction
Read the Avaaz statement and support the campaign!
In an article entitled "From coca monitoring to sustainable farming", UNODC highlights the importance of alternative development for a successful drug crop eradication campaign in Bolivia.
This series of videos provides a comprehensive overview of the main discussions that took place at the 2011 International Harm Reduction Conference in Beirut, Lebanon.
On Wednesday 27th April, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) held elections in New York for the International Narcotics Control Board for a five-year term (2012-2017). The two candidates elected from among the World Health Organisation candidates are Professor Hamid Ghodse and Wayne Hall.
In April, the HCLU video team travelled to Beirut and participated in the International Harm Reduction Conference 2011. During the conference an uprising broke out in the Roumieh prison, where thousands of prisoners rioted against the inhumane conditions.
The 54th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) took place from 21st to 25th March 2011. A number of organisations that participated to the meeting share their impressions of the event in reports, blogs and videos.
Authored by the editors of the Journal of the International AIDS Society, this e-course is designed to support the preparation, writing and submission of abstracts to scientific conferences. The course provides examples and short exercises for interactive learning, as well as key take-home messages and a summary overview in form of a self-use checklist.
This declaration aims to hold the United Nations accountable to their commitments on HIV/AIDS for people who inject drugs worldwide. It does this by providing a clear platform for mobilising a broad constituency of civil society organisations and governments in support of evidence-based harm reduction interventions and drug policy reform as outlined in the Vienna Declaration. Ultimately, efforts around the declaration aim to raise the profile of these issues within the proceedings and outputs of the United Nations HLM on HIV/AIDS in New York.
Injecting drug use and the growing HIV epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa were the focus of the International Harm Reduction Conference 2011 that took place in Beirut, Lebanon from 3-7 April 2011. The region is slowly increasing availability of harm reduction programmes although countries are at different stages of introducing the different components of the harm reduction package. Despite positive changes occurring in some countries, repressive measures and criminalization of drug users are still predominant in the region. To try reverse this situation, the Global Fund has granted $US 8.3 million to a multi-country project. Its aim is to raise awareness, advocate and build capacity of civil society organizations to scale up the provision of harm reduction services in 12 countries over the next three years.