Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Responsibility to Injection-Driven HIV Epidemics

IHRA's HR2 programme has authored a submission to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights www.ohchr.org. The submission - entitled 'Harm Reduction and Human Rights: The Global Response to Injection-Driven HIV Epidemics' - was prepared following a call by the High Commissioner's office for input in preparing a biennial report on HIV and human rights for the UN Human Rights Committee meeting in March 2009. The submission provides a global overview of the injecting-driven HIV epidemic worldwide, with a particular focus on several key regions. It also examines the human rights implications of the failure to scale-up harm reduction services worldwide, which includes a specific focus on the needs of women and young people. The submission concludes by making a series of recommendations to various UN human rights bodies to increase their engagement with harm reduction and drug policy issues. The submission received formal endorsements from a number of harm reduction networks and organisations from around the world.