Throughout Asia, criminalisation and hard punishment are imposed on people who use drugs

From 28 to 30 January 2015, the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting on HIV and AIDS (IGM) will be held in Bangkok, convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission in Asia-Pacific (UNESCAP) in cooperation with other relevant United Nations entities.

The IGM will set the agenda for regional cooperation on legal and policy barriers to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and in the context of meeting the commitments in the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Intensifying Our Efforts to Eliminate HIV and AIDS, which include reducing the transmission of HIV amongst people who inject drugs by 50% by 2015.

The outcomes of the IGM will serve as one of the regional inputs to the global review of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals to be undertaken by the General Assembly in 2015, on HIV and AIDS for the development agenda beyond 2015, and the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in 2016.

This infographic highlights the criminalisation and punishment imposed on people who use drugs, which constitute key legal and policy barriers to achieving universal access. These barriers must be removed in order to make any significant progress in achieving regional and global commitments to people who use drugs.

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