 convenes thousands of participants from across the world to address the growing impact of digital technologies on human rights. Through panels, workshops, roundtables and closed-door meetings, the summit provides a space for collective strategy-building across sectors and regions.

Over more than a decade, RightsCon has grown into the world’s leading global forum on digital rights, rotating across regions and adapting to the evolving political, technological and regulatory landscape. Its programme reflects the complexity of today’s digital environment, from surveillance and censorship to platform accountability and emerging technologies.

The 2026 edition will take place in Lusaka, Zambia, marking a return to the African continent and the first RightsCon hosted in South-Central Africa. The summit will be held in person and online from 5 to 8 May 2026, building on discussions and outcomes from RightsCon 2025 in Taipei.

RightsCon 2026 aims to strengthen global solidarity, amplify regional perspectives, and support coordinated action to defend human rights in an increasingly digitised world.

Drugs, Data & Justice: Resisting Algorithmic Policing, Building Community Safety

The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), Conectas Direitos Humanos, Statewatch, and European Digital Rights (EDRi) 

convene this roundtable to examine how artificial intelligence and other digital technologies are reshaping drug policy, law enforcement, and access to public services — often with harmful consequences for marginalised communities.

The session will explore the expansion of algorithmic policing, biometric surveillance, and welfare profiling in the name of drug control, and how these systems intensify racialised surveillance, exclusion, and institutional violence. Drug policy reform advocates, harm reduction practitioners, people who use drugs, digital rights activists, and sex workers’ rights advocates will share concrete case studies from Oceania, Europe, and Latin America, highlighting both harms and resistance strategies.

Through facilitated discussion and breakout groups, participants will identify current digital implementations, assess existing advocacy and accountability approaches — including litigation, oversight, and narrative change — and explore community-driven, care-based alternatives that advance harm reduction and community safety. The session aims to distil 5–7 actionable strategies and lay the groundwork for sustained cross-movement collaboration at the intersection of digital rights and drug policy.

RightsCon 2026

 Grande Bibliothèque de BAnQ, 475 boulevard de Maisonneuve Est, Montréal / Online


• In person: 8 May 2026 (23:00)
• Online: 12 May 2026 (23:00)

 French and English (simultaneous interpretation available for certain sessions)

Since its creation in 1991, the Quebec Harm Reduction Conference (RQRDM) has served as a key space for exchange, reflection and mobilisation. Originally focused on HIV prevention among people who inject drugs, the conference has progressively expanded to address overdose prevention, sexuality, substance regulation and broader social justice issues.

The 39th edition marks a return to the essence of harm reduction. At a time when harm reduction approaches are increasingly subject to stigma, misinformation and political backlash, the conference seeks to reaffirm the evidence base and human rights foundations of this pragmatic and humanistic approach.

Research consistently demonstrates that when harm reduction strategies are properly implemented and adequately resourced, they reduce overdose deaths, improve public health outcomes, and strengthen communities — countering claims that such approaches increase drug use, crime or homelessness.

39th Quebec Harm Reduction Conference (RQRDM)

We are pleased to invite you to a half-day of reflection and discussion on forced treatments in Canada: current issues and debates, to be held on 

Thursday, May 14, from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM at 55 Laurier Avenue East (Desmarais Pavilion), Room 12102

, University of Ottawa. People who are not from the Ottawa/Gatineau region will also be able to participate in the event via videoconference.

The event will begin with the presentation of the preliminary results of the report “

Beyond Tomorrow: Psychiatric and Addiction Forced Treatments in Canada

”, followed by an overview presented by Rob Wipond, author of 

A panel discussion will be moderated by Eugène Leblanc, editor-in-chief of 

Eva Ottawa, Associate professor at the Civil Law section, University of Ottawa, and Atikamekw Nehirowisiw researcher originally from Manawan

Lucy Costa, Director of the Empowerment Council

Kayla DeMong, Director of Prairie Harm Reduction

Bren LeFrançois, Professor at the School of Social Work, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Fiona Jager, nurse and professor in nursing, St Lawrence College

The program will also include a small-group discussion session, followed by a plenary debrief, and will conclude with a networking opportunity.

We also invite you to share this invitation within your respective networks and with individuals or organizations who might be interested in these issues.

Participation in the event requires registration. Please confirm your attendance by May 4.

We look forward to your participation and to sharing this important conversation with you.

Canada Research Chair on Mental Health and Access to Justice: 

https://sante-mentale-acces-justice.ca/fr

https://uottawa.academia.edu/EmmanuelleBERNHEIM

Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing

Half-day of reflection and discussion on forced treatments in Canada

The struggle for drug policies that are accountable, evidence-based and rights-affirming stands at a crossroads. Despite important wins worldwide, many governments are once again retreating into punishment and repression. While painful, this backlash does not weaken our resolve — it sharpens it. 

We must organise differently, resist strategically, and deepen community engagement to galvanise action.

Support. Don’t Punish 2026 Global Day of Action

, centred around 26 June, is a powerful moment of transnational solidarity. The day brings together communities, movements, and allies to accelerate our commitment towards responses that prioritise care, dignity and justice.

Since 2013, the campaign has grown from a small mobilisation into a decentralised and grassroots-centred movement spanning hundreds of cities worldwide. Each action, whether a march, community dialogue, artistic intervention or direct policy engagement, reflects local priorities. Yet, together, they form a collective demand for change that is impossible to ignore.

This year, we ask you to prepare not for a symbolic day, but a moment of practical and political organising

. To amplify community leadership, confront stigma and criminalisation, and defend rights and democracy at a time when they are increasingly threatened.

, to map actions around the world and provide as much financial and practical support as possible. With resources under strain, thoughtful and strategic preparation will be essential.

You can also strengthen this work by donating to the campaign’s

. All contributions go directly to support grassroots organising in the Global South, where funding is most limited and the harms of repression most severe.

Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action 2026

Scientific progress over the 40-plus years of the HIV response has transformed HIV into a manageable condition if you have access to treatment. By the end of 2024, the number of AIDS-related deaths had dropped by 54% and new HIV acquisitions by 40% since 2010. HIV treatment is now so effective that the virus can be undetectable and, therefore, untransmittable. We have highly successful long-acting HIV prevention options, including the injectables, lenacapavir and cabotegravir, with a long-acting oral prevention technology on the horizon.

Despite these gains, UNAIDS data suggests stagnant progress in recent years: 1.3 million people acquired HIV and 630,000 people died of AIDS-related causes in 2023 and again in 2024. There continue to be huge gaps in HIV prevention and treatment: 9.2 million people living with HIV were not getting life-saving medicines in 2024. This is because old barriers to HIV services persist. Among them are stigma and discrimination, criminalization and structural inequalities between populations and countries.

In early 2025, the suspension of US foreign aid, including PEPFAR, triggered a funding crisis that threatens to widen those gaps. This underscores the urgent need for countries to strengthen domestic financing, improve efficiencies and prioritize sustainability.

We have to work together to prevent the current crisis from rolling back progress.

Join the International Aids Society at the 26th annual AIDS conference in Rio de Janeiro and virtually from July 26-31, 2026, for vital conversations to rethink, rebuild and rise.

AIDS 2026 - 26th International AIDS Conference

“Accelerating crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: protecting people and planet and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the digital age.”

The Fifteenth Crime Congress will be held from 25 to 30 April 2026 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates under the overall theme “Accelerating crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: protecting people and planet and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the digital age”, in line with the General Assembly resolution 

High-level segment (Heads of State, Ministers, etc.)

Single declaration, later reviewed by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Regional preparatory meetings starting in 2025

Emphasis on participation of least developed countries, civil society, academia, and NGOs

Encourages early preparation by Member States and creation of national preparatory committees

15th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

 Clarion Congress Hotel Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

If you’re working to improve the health or rights of people who use drugs, INHSU 2026 is a must-attend event. A vibrant space where research, practice, policy, and lived experience come together on equal footing.

Over 300+ sessions will take place across tracks on Epidemiology and Public Health Research, Clinical Research, Social Science and Policy Research, and Models of Care and Programs.

Sessions will cover harm reduction innovations, HIV, HCV, HBV, TB and other infections, other drug-related harms, drug policy, and more.

Prague is a powerful and timely setting for INHSU 2026, providing the backdrop to reflect on both achievements and barriers that continue to affect people who use drugs globally.

14th International Conference on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users (INHSU 2026)

The reconvened 69th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs is expected to take place on 3-4 December 2026 in Vienna, Austria.

Events