World Hepatitis Day is an annual event on the 28th July that provides international focus for patient groups and people living with viral hepatitis. It is an opportunity to raise awareness and influence real change in disease prevention and access to testing and treatment.

Every year World Hepatitis Day gets bigger and bigger, with more countries and organisations taking part. Since its launch in 2008, thousands of events have taken place, from rock concerts and press briefings to ministerial meetings and fundraising events.

Please click here for mor details on the conference and the venue.

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World Hepatitis Day

The Indian Harm Reduction Network proposes a two day Regional Harm Reduction Network Meeting on 24th & 25th July 2014 as one of its key activities mentioned in workplan under phase-II of Global Fund Round 9 HIV/IDU Grant. This meeting opens avenues for three fold deliberations including organisational capacity, network strengthen and operationalization process.

This meeting is designed to provide participants with an opportunity to share regional initiatives:priority goals, objectives and activities; regional challenges, experiences and best practices in harm reduction service and advocacy, information sharing, promoting harm reduction interventions and provide inputs for improving the quality and access to treatment and care services for the PWIDs in the region.

Click here for more details about the event.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

East India Harm Reduction Network Meeting 

The convening of the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) in Melbourne, Australia, in July 2014 represents a tremendous opportunity to highlight the diverse nature of the Asia Pacific region’s HIV epidemic and the unique responses to it. Gathering in Melbourne, we will work together to strengthen our efforts across all regions and around the world, building on the momentum of recent scientific advances and the momentum from AIDS 2012.

The biennial International AIDS Conference is the premier gathering for those working in the field of HIV, as well as policymakers, people living with HIV and others committed to ending the epidemic. It will be a tremendous opportunity for researchers from around the world to share the latest scientific advances in the field, learn from one another’s expertise, and develop strategies for advancing all facets of our collective efforts to treat and prevent HIV.

AIDS 2014 is expected to convene over 18 000 delegates from nearly 200 countries, including 1,200 journalists. The conference will be held from 20-25 July 2014 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The International AIDS Society, the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with more than 16,000 members in 194 countries, is organizing AIDS 2014 in collaboration with international and local partners.

The UNGASS on drugs: how to get involved, and why?

 - event organised by IDPC, HRI and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance

Other panels and events on drugs and HIV at the conference

By women for women: Harm reduction among women who inject drugs

Science addressing drugs and HIV: State of the art of harm reduction

Assessing the quality of population size estimates of people who inject drugs

The critical partnership for HIV prevention: Building positive relationships with police to support civil society and HIV programmes

AIDS 2014 Conference Road Map: People who use drugs and people in prisons

The International Drug User Networking Zone

The programme of the Drug User Networking Zone is available below.

To visit the conference website, please click here.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) 

The Permanent Missions of Benin, Mexico and Switzerland to the United Nations in collaboration with International Drug Policy Consortium and the New York NGO Committee On Drugs, cordially invite you to a panel discussion: 

"The 2016 UNGASS on drugs: Ensuring a successful outcome".

The UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem to be held in 2016 presents the international community with an invaluable opportunity to reaffirm commitments, to debate new challenges and dynamics and to decide together how to enrich the current consensus to reach better results on countering the world drug problem.

In order to face a global challenge there are no simple solutions to formulate or to implement. We do need the convergence of responsible governments, participatory citizens, active international organizations as well as UN agencies and bodies to ensure a substantive, comprehensive, plural and transparent debate to the preparatory process for UNGASS 2016.

In this regard we consider it is time to discuss and to propose effective answers to questions such as: How to ensure an effective participation of UN agencies and bodies, civil society, academia and all relevant stakeholders, including regional organizations, in the UNGASS preparatory process? How to support the work of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in leading this inclusive process and its extensive substantive consultations? How to assist the President of the General Assembly in supporting, guiding and staying involved in this process? How to incorporate the views and experiences of regional organizations on this issue?



Please RSVP by July 10, 2014 to NewYorkNGOC@gmail.com as passes are required to enter the UN.

The 2016 UNGASS on Drugs: Ensuring a successful outcome

This course aims to explore the often tense intersection between drug policy and human rights. Taking place within the broader context of the UN drug control system, discussion will focus on the identification and understanding of relevant international human rights agreements and on the evaluation and assessment of the gap between rights and practice in the implementation of drug policies in many countries and regions.

Including examination of both “consumer-” and “supply-side” issues, the focus of the course will be global, and participants will be drawn from all regions internationally.

The deadline to apply has been extended until 10th March 2014.

Please, click here for more details on the venue and the course.

Drug policy and human rights summer course at Central European University

The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN), as an implementing partner of the Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main Project “CARE – Quality and Continuity of Care for Drug Users in Prisons”, is organising a training on overdose prevention in prisons and upon release on 7 - 8 July, 2014, in Vilnius, Lithuania.

This training is a result of two European Commission (EC) reports which concentrate on the mapping of existing overdose (OD) prevention and management programmes for released prisoners in Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Romania, as well as, the provision of a Fact Sheet which considers best practice models.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the 

EHRN overdose prevention and management training

The University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) and the EMCDDA will be joining forces again in July 2014 to hold the third European summer school on ‘Illicit drugs in Europe: demand, supply and public policies’. Registration opened on 15 January for the two-week course, which will take place in Lisbon from 30 June to 11 July.

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.

The first two summer schools in 2012 and 2013 brought together around 60 students from over 15 EU
Member States, as well as countries from Asia and Latin America.


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3rd European summer school on ‘Illicit drugs in Europe: Demand, supply and public policies’

Thursday June 26th 2014 will be the second “Global Day of Action”. This is the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, but also the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The “Global Day of Action” will highlight how people who use drugs continue to be abused, stigmatised, tortured, beaten and even killed in the name of the ‘war on drugs’. The video below summarises what was achieved in 2013, and how you can get involved.

If you would like to take part and organise something in your city, please click on the links below and then contact campaign@idpc.net.

Support. Don't Punish global day of action

Heroin-assisted treatment is a medical intervention that provides the pharmaceutical-grade drug by prescription to people with long-term opioid dependency who have not responded to traditional treatments, like methadone or abstinence-based programs. Since the first study in Switzerland in the early 1990s, supervised treatment with diacetylmorphine—the chemical name for heroin—has been demonstrated to be cost-effective, reduce illicit drug use and criminal activity, promote the health and well-being of patients, and—in many cases—to lead to abstinence for the small group of patients for whom other forms of treatment are not effective.

by Ulrik Holmstrup—a documentary that follows the first year of a heroin-assisted treatment program in Denmark.

After the screening Scott Bernstein, a program officer for the Global Drug Policy Program, will discuss the status of a similar heroin-assisted treatment program in Canada, and the evidence and controversy behind it.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert

Film screening: The case for prescribing heroin

The Global Addiction Conference is the annual meeting for the Global Addiction Association, that promotes knowledge-sharing facility for all those involved in the understanding and treatment of addiction.

Addiction represents one of the areas of medicine that is least understood, yet generates an enormous burden on society, the medical profession, carers and individual sufferers.

An important part of the Global Addiction conference are the specialist sessions developed and presented by our Association partners. For 2014 we are delighted to welcome Alice Rap, IDHDP, EURAD and EMCDDA as contributors.

Please click here for more details on the nference and the venue.

Global Addiction Conference

Health in Prisons is a one-week course offered by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The course provides public health, medical and nursing professionals with all the tools needed to critically analyze and address the myriad of health and human rights issues facing populations in detention or incarceration. The course is global in scope, covering the health needs of prison populations through a focus on the organization of prison health care and multi-disciplinary challenges facing healthcare providers, both in the US and internationally. It also covers ethical issues that arise in providing healthcare services to populations in detention and provides an overview of the main legal instruments, professional codes, and declarations designed to protect the rights of prisoners, detainees and patients.

The 2014 course topics will include prison health systems and management structures; communicable disease control; drug use and substance abuse treatment; mental health services; health impacts of solitary confinement and disciplinary segregation; specific health needs of female, youth and aging prison populations; ethical issues for healthcare providers in prisons and detention centers; and the role of public health and clinical professionals in prison reform.

The course will be held at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Instruction will take place from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, June 23 – 27, 2014. All instruction will be in English.

Please click here for more details on the course.

Health in prisons course

This workshop will analyse best practice around the diverse alternatives to custody which have been developed around the world, in an effort to reduce prison overcrowding in the region.

For more information about the event, please click here.


Past Events