Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network is a European network tackling marginalisation and social exclusion of various groups of people including drug users by improving their access to services.

Correlation es una red europea centrada en la marginación y la exclusión social de ciertos grupos de personas, entre ellos usuarios de drogas ilegales, a fin de mejorar su acceso a los servicios que necesitan.

Correlation est un réseau européen dont le travail est ciblé sur la marginalisation et l’exclusion sociale de certains groupes de personnes, y compris les consommateurs de drogues illégales, dans le but d’améliorer leur accès aux services dont ils ont besoin.

Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network

Communities of people who use drugs have for decades, and prior to the establishment of mainstream health services, designed and implemented some of the most effective evidence-based harm reduction interventions, such as needle-exchange programs, peer-delivered naloxone and community-based drug checking (Salazar et al., 2021). However, research collaborations between people who use drugs and academic stakeholders often remain scarce, undervalued, and misinterpreted (e.g., Simon et al., 2021). The involvement of harm reduction professionals and community members in research is often limited to serve as interviewees or a gateway to access other, often hard-to-reach participants. Consequently, community members may feel that their meaningful involvement is virtually missing, and research data results in evidence which dismisses the knowledge, experiences, and needs of the communities that are the focus of studies and hence, those who should benefit the most (Simon et al., 2021).

Evidence and research are needed to advocate for more access to and coverage of high-quality harm reduction services (e.g., Hanney et al., 2003). However, the relationship between research, policy and practice is a complex one. Consequently, it requires more efficient and functional connections between academia, street-level practitioners and communities of people who use drugs, spanning through the process of planning, designing, and conducting the research. This more collaborative approach needs also to facilitate the dissemination of results emanating from scientific studies. Partly due to requirements within the academic field, publishing in high-impact journals is often the most desired outcome for academic researchers. On the other hand, translating research findings from complex, highly abstract academic texts into relevant practical recommendations (that are understandable outside the scientific profession and more easily used by practitioners and community members) does not seem to receive enough attention

Fostering community knowledge - Background paper on community-based harm reduction research

A growing number of cities, particularly in Europe and North America, are supporting, experimenting with or planning the development of a drug consumption room: a pragmatic response to the health and social damage associated with the use of legal and illegal psychotropic substances. However, the urgent need to implement and strengthen innovative and courageous policies is becoming more and more apparent every day, especially with COVID-19, which has made the most vulnerable more vulnerable.

The City of Strasbourg, the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe, the Ithaque association and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), with the support of the Inter-ministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviours (MILDECA), the Regional Health Agency of the Grand Est (ARS), the European Forum for Urban Safety (Efus) and Correlation Network, are pleased to invite you to the third symposium on drug consumption rooms, which will be held on 4-5 May at the Council of Europe.

This conference continues the strong momentum started in 2019 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, renewed in 2021 at the Council of Europe, bringing together nearly 600 people from 50 cities and 33 different countries. Its aim is to promote the model of drug consumption rooms and to harmonize French and European policies on risk and harm reduction. It offers the opportunity to share a diversity of experiences, to deal with different legal frameworks and their evolutions, to put innovations into perspective and to encourage collaborative networks as close as possible to the territories that require it.

The event will be attended by institutional actors and associations in the field, managers of structures, and local, national and European political leaders, who will be able to take the floor.

The pre-programme and the registration link will be available later.

Drug consumption rooms around the world: Working together to provide a local response

Today on International Overdose Awareness Day, Correlation wants to reflect on the current situation regarding overdose, overdose prevention, and non-fatal overdose in Europe.

C-EHRN reached out to our focal points for their insight into the current overdose situation in Europe.

Following the data from our 2021 Data Report, we can see that the life-saving drug Naloxone is still not widely available. Naloxone can reverse the effects of an overdose, and consequently save lives; our advocacy work pushes for the availability of naloxone worldwide. Karen Mamo from our focal point in Malta offered the below reflection on Naloxone;

“An EU wide campaign on availability and accessibility of intranasal naloxone should be spearheaded by C-EHRN… it is very unjust to have eu citizens suffer due to moralistic and structural barriers. To my knowledge, unfortunately, a private citizen is unable to order naloxone across EU borders. So for example in the case of Malta, we have naloxone in hospital, but not available for peers.”

Tony Duffin of Ana Liffey, our Irish focal point, offered the below sentiment regarding non-fatal overdose;The sequelae of non-fatal overdose:


On International Overdose Awareness Day 2022, we remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind. It is also important to remind ourselves of the harm non-fatal overdose causes.

"Sequelae: is the term used to describe an after effect of a disease, a condition, or an injury.

On a regular basis people who suffer an overdose are saved and go to hospital; however, often people are discharged, or they self-discharge, without any further follow up. Without realising, they walk out of hospital potentially with health problems they didn’t have before the non-fatal overdose occurred. As a consequence of their non-fatal overdose there may be negative consequences from a neurological, muscular, cardiac or pulmonary perspective.

The impact of non-fatal overdose is far reaching i.e. the impact is the level of morbidity which has an impact upon the individual, their family/carers and the economic impact of the ongoing health care for the individual.

Unfortunately, through my work, I have known many people who have who experienced multiple non-fatal overdoses. Each time a non-fatal overdose happens it is a near miss, an indicator that the person is at risk of a fatal overdose; and each time it carries the potential for sequelae related to the non-fatal overdose.

Non-fatal overdose is a significant issue, with significant consequences. International Overdose Awareness Day 2022, is a reminder that, globally, there is more to be done to respond to the sequelae of non-fatal overdose."

, CEO, Ana Liffey Drug Project (C-EHRN Irish Focal Point)

Dr Austin O’Carroll was inspired by his work with people who use drugs, and offered the below reflection on overdose;The Hierarchy of Self Inflicted Death.


"The taking of one’s life whether intentionally or through one’s own actions is a tragedy. All victims, young and old, deserve our sympathy. Unfortunately, as a society we do not deal this compassion out equally. Those we give most sympathy to are the men and women who intend to take their own lives due to feeling depressed and having no hope of future happiness. We give less sympathy to those who commit suicide when under the influence of alcohol whose feelings of depression and hopelessness are intensified by their drinking. We give least sympathy to those who overdose, not caring whether they live or die, as they have no hope offuture happiness.

This hierarchy unfortunately results in unevenly distributed care. Those who have attempted suicide will get a psychiatric assessment, offered a safety plan, offered future psychiatric support and on occasions be admitted to ensure their safety. Those who attempt suicide while under the influence of alcohol will have some of those interventions. Many, if not most, of those who have a non fatal overdose will have none of those interventions, even if they have had multiple non-fatal overdoses. Health professionals have unconsciously created an inequality in the level of empathy and care they offer to those who put their lives at risk due to having little or no hope of happiness.

On International Overdose Awareness Day we must commit to redressing this inequality of care."

, Founder of Safetynet, North Dublin City GP Training Progamme. Wonca Europe 5 Star Doctor 2020.

The full paper from Dr Austin O Carroll is available here.

In Greece, the mortality rates of people who use drugs continue to rise, with a large HIV outbreak among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Athens, Greece. A paper regarding these worrying rates can be accessed here.

Marios Atzemis, of Positive Voice, offered a concerning insight into the situation in Greece;


"What should be highlighted from Greece is that naloxone is not available to civil society organisations, to peers and to drug users. There have been major changes to the legislative framework recently and now naloxone is available to workers of the largest public harm reduction organism -OKANA- which also holds the monopoly of the OST provision. Before that, naloxone could only be given through medical staff and its provision was characterised as a medical act. Now that has changed but it is still not available to the directly affected community. People do not usually OD in the streets in the open drug scenes and when they do they get their assistance. People die alone in deserted buildings and in their apartments. Sometimes their relatives are in the next room. If the community was trained not to use alone and if the relatives were trained how to use naloxone things could be better. All that with the prerequisite of the before-mentioned factor.

There is lack of peer to peer training to drug users for safer drug use and ways to deal with an OD while waiting for the ambulance. There is also no drug testing.

Mostly the substance free treatments never prepare you for what to do or not to do, in case you use again -relapse in their language- after such a long period of abstinence. In Italy for example ”Villa Maraini” provides naloxone to the patients who leave after ”graduating” the premises, just in case . In Greece this is not the case. Using is been demonized and considered to be the ultimate act of treason after going to treatment. People feel so ashamed and so embarrassed to say that they want to use and when they finally do it, they make sure they are alone. And they die alone. I saw so many people with my naked eyes dying while being in the ”social reintegration ” phase of the substance free treatments."

In the coming weeks, more research regarding the concerning rise in mortality rates in Greece will be shared within the network to raise awareness of the situation and to support advocacy work for this problem. Both Marios Atzemis and Christos Siou will take part in a conversation with C-EHRN regarding this issue, which will be shared within the network to further support advocacy and awareness.

Earlier this year, C-EHRN hosted a webinar on the state and challenges of overdose prevention, the webinar recording can be accessed here. Read our monitoring report with information on overdose here.

Visit the official International Overdose Awareness Day site here.

Reflections on International Overdose Awareness Day 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought catastrophic suffering and health consequences for civilians, including key populations to harm reduction such as people who use drugs, LGBTIQ+, and people living with HIV.

Several organizations have been working hard to try and cater for the needs of these populations. In this snapshot, we depict the current harm reduction services being offered, as well as the needs of key populations who are caught up in the conflict.

With the aim of addressing the needs of key populations impacted by Russian aggression, we have consulted a series of documents and engaged in several coordination meetings with civil society and other key international organizations in the field of harm reduction trying to address the needs of key populations due to the war in Ukraine.

We believe that our work will help stakeholders to recognize priority areas and identify how they could be a positive force of hope.

Ukraine snapshots – Harm reduction services in action during the war in Ukraine

Commission recommendation on the implementation of alternatives to coercive sanctions as response to drug law offences and drug-related crimes.

The European Commission has started an initiative regarding an alternative response to drug law offences; these alternatives will be evidence-based and their recommended implementation is designed to provide essential support to people who need assistance due to drug use or problems with addiction. The below exert details the aims of this initiative.

“According to a report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, people who use drugs are eight times more likely to commit a crime than those who do not. Similarly, people in prison are substantially more likely than their peers in the community to have used drugs, to use drugs regularly or to experience drug-related problems. Indeed, some start using drugs while in this setting. There is, therefore, a vicious and costly circle of crime and drug use; nevertheless, drug-related treatment can be effective in breaking it. Furthermore, alternatives to coercive sanctions can contribute to alleviating prison overcrowding, recidivism, addiction, and problem drug use and related negative health effects. They may also have a positive economic impact since they are generally less expensive than incarceration.



Currently, alternatives to coercive sanctions are underused. Sometimes, they face problems and barriers linked to their design, implementation and delivery, and fail to deliver on their intended outcomes. One barrier to the implementation of alternatives to coercive sanctions is a lack of local coordination between stakeholders. For example, those deciding on the sanctions often do not learn about the outcome, and stop applying them in subsequent cases due to lack of feedback. Furthermore, availability of data on the implementation and outcomes of the various alternatives to coercive sanctions needs to be improved.



Experience of drug use is more frequently reported by males (50.6 million) than females (32.8 million). At the European level, 62% of women in prison and 41% of men in prison have used an illicit drug before imprisonment. The increase in drug use during imprisonment is more pronounced in women than in men. Thus, women in prison are disproportionately affected by drug use compared with the general population.



This initiative is necessary to fulfil the intention, under the EU Drugs Action Plan 2021-2025, to ‘scale up the availability, effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation of measures provided as alternatives to coercive sanctions’. Without action at EU level, alternatives to coercive sanctions will remain underused and the barriers they face will remain. Their design, implementation and delivery will remain fragmented. They will continue to be applied imprecisely and therefore ineffectively. The differential effect on marginalised groups will remain dependent on societal attitudes.”

The feedback period for the initiative is open 26 August 2022 – 23 September 2022 (midnight Brussels time), the Commission would like to hear your views to help further develop and fine-tune this initiative.

View details of the full initiative and how to provide feedback here.

Feedback request for European Commission initiative on alternatives to coercive sanctions in response to drug-law offences

Civil society organisations sent an open letter to the EU Commission to criticise the new call for drug policy grant proposals that almost only focuses on law enforcement and excludes harm reduction.

Since the Drug Unit of the EU Commission was relocated to the Internal Security Department, civil society has been concerned about the continuous shifting of its approach towards a more repressive, law-and-order direction from a balanced, integrated model of drug policies.

The new call for proposals launched by the Commission is another step in this direction. Unlike the previous EC JUST drug policy grant calls, this funding mechanism almost only focuses on supply reduction. From its four objectives, three focuses on improving supply reduction, it has only one objective on drug prevention – while harm reduction is completely missing.

Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN), an umbrella of European harm reduction organisations (Rights Reporter Foundation, the organisation operating this website, is a Steering Committee member) sent an open letter to Ilva Johanson, Commissioner of Home Affairs, and Fiona Sipala, the head of the Drug Unit of the EC, to address this issue.

“We write to you on behalf of Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (CEHRN), representing 158 civil society organisations (CSO) working in the area of harm reduction drug policy in Europe. C-EHRN is part of Foundation De Regenboog Groep and, as such, is also represented in the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs.

Together with the undersigned networks, we would like to express our concern and disappointment with the current call of the Internal Security Grant concerning better law enforcement in the area of illicit drug trafficking. We believe this call does not reflect the principles of an evidence-based, integrated, balanced and multidisciplinary approach to the drugs phenomenon and is not in line with the Drug Strategy of the European Union. The call has a narrow focus on law enforcement interventions, with no objectives to improve complex public health and social services, including harm reduction.

For several years, the members and organisations we work with have benefited from the EC JUST Drug Policy grants launched by the European Commission. These grants demonstrated the balanced, evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach to drug policies in accordance with the core principles of the European Union. They provided an excellent opportunity for civil society organisations working in the field of drugs to cooperate internationally and exchange knowledge and good practices.
When the Drugs Unit was moved from the Justice Department to the Internal Security Department, civil society organisations were promised that this would not affect the balanced and multidisciplinary approach to drug policies of the EU Commission.
However, the apparent shift towards law enforcement and crime prevention proves different – with social and public health aspects slipping off the agenda.

The Internal Security call lays only limited emphasis on drug demand reduction and none at all on harm reduction. At the same time, no other EU Programme took over this responsibility, leaving drug demand and harm reduction behind, without any opportunity for EU funding and support.

This is an extremely concerning development. EU funding has become increasingly important in recent years because of the emerging funding crisis for harm reduction, especially in the Eastern part of the European Union. Since the 2008 economic crisis, funding for harm reduction has constantly been declining in most Member States.

Several essential services operated by CSOs have been closed down or curtailed due to budget cuts and the retreat of international donors.

On top of the funding crisis, CSOs experience a shrinking space for civil society in several Member States, where governments are increasingly hostile to those organisations that receive international funding or work with marginalised groups of society. With decreasing national and local funds, direct funding from the European Commission was often the only funding opportunity to improve advocacy and innovation in the harm reduction field for many organisations. This opportunity is now lost.

DG Home is the department within the EC responsible for developing and implementing a balanced, integrated and evidence-based EU Drug Policy. Such a balanced approach requires that funding mechanisms are available for all drug policy areas and not only for law enforcement and crime prevention programmes.

We, therefore, call upon the European Commission and DG Home to reinstall the funding mechanism for drug demand and harm reduction to ensure a balanced and evidence-based drug policy also in the future.

We look forward to your response and hope for your continued support for civil society in the area of drug policy and harm reduction.”

Drug Policy Network South East Europe [DPNSEE]

EU HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis Civil Society Forum

Eurasian Harm Reduction Association [EHRA]

European Network of People Who Use Drugs [EuroNPUD]

Federation des Acteurs en Education en Promotion de la Sante de Guyane [AGRRR] International Drug Policy Consortium [IDPC]

International Network of People Who Use Drugs [INPUD]

Youth Organizations for Drug Actions [YODA]

Civil society demands balanced EU funding for drug policies

By Rigoni, R,; Tammi, T.; van der Gouwe, D.; Moura,J.; Prins-Schiffer, K / Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network

The C-EHRN Civil Society-led Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe 2021 Data Report is the third of a series. 2018 marked the start of developing a framework for European civil society-based monitoring aiming, in the long-term, at improving harm reduction responses and policies in Europe. The first annual report was published in 2019 targeting developments in the areas of Hepatitis C (HCV), new drug trends, overdose prevention and civil society involvement in drug policies, themes chosen by the members of the network due to their crucial importance for harm reduction. The second report, published in 2020, added two new sections to cover the effects of the rising COVID-19 pandemic on harm reduction service delivery and map the availability of essential harm reduction services. The same six areas are covered in this third report.

Civil society has an important role in holding governments and donors accountable, among others, by engaging in independent monitoring and evaluation of services and programmes. In combination with advocacy, monitoring tools are crucial strategies to hold governments accountable and to improve the implementation of policies and programmes in line with the needs of PWUD and their environments. C-EHRN uses an online survey as a monitoring tool to collect the experiences of harm reduction service providers and service users at the ground level. The reports intend to serve as a complementary source of data both for EMCDDA [5,6] and HRI, as well as to network members. The Monitoring seeks to reflect the experiences of harm reduction service providers, focusing on how drug policies and specific harm reduction guidelines are (or are not) being implemented at the street level. Such indepth and rich information is crucial for the development of policies and services for PWUD and can be of great value for civil society organisation (CSO) advocacy and for policymakers.

Civil society monitoring of harm reduction in Europe, 2021

United Nations Secretary-General
President of the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

President of the European Commission
European Commissioner for Crisis Management
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

We, the undersigned organisations, call on the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to jointly support and set up, as a matter of urgency, an uninterrupted supply chain of humanitarian assistance to the affected populations within the country, and to establish safe humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting several large cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Meriupol and Zhitomir, and bombing neighbourhoods within those areas, inevitably resulting in countless civilian deaths. The escalating war actions are causing tremendous humanitarian crises affecting millions of people. Those staying in cities and villages in Ukraine are in urgent need of warm shelter, food, water, basic medicine and other essential supplies. Additionally, more than 100,000 people have been internally displaced since the invasion began, and the number of displaced people will continue to grow. At the moment, meeting the essential needs of internally displaced people is extremely difficult in Ukraine due to martial law, curfews and threats to the lives of volunteers.

UNHCR estimates that due to the war, up to five million people will flee Ukraine. As of 3 March 2022, one million refugees were estimated to have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries —including Moldova, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. As the situation worsens, an estimated four million people may flee Ukraine in the coming weeks and months. We highly appreciate the efforts thus far of governments, international institutions and millions of citizens in European countries — especially those in Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary and Lithuania — in organising comprehensive support for all refugees from Ukraine.

What is now urgently needed is the provision of basic, essential health supplies and medication for people in Ukraine, including those internally displaced, by means of revised importation rules and distribution networks. People who belong to vulnerable and discriminated groups — such as people who use drugs, people in prison, gay and other men who have sex with other men, sex workers and trans people — must not be overlooked in these efforts. Notably, Ukraine has the second largest population of people living with HIV, people with tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis and opioid dependency in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the country has developed successful and progressive harm reduction and treatment programmes, supported by the global community. To sustain those achievements and preserve human life, we ask you to ensure essential provisions including opioid agonist therapy, ARV therapy, and tuberculosis diagnostics and treatments.

Ukraine urgently needs humanitarian corridors supported by intergovernmental and multilateral organisations. On 1 March, the UN General Assembly adopted with overwhelming support (including by the European Union) a resolution demanding “all parties to allow safe and unfettered passage to destinations outside of Ukraine and to facilitate the rapid, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance for those in need in Ukraine, to protect civilians, including humanitarian personnel (...) and to respect human rights.”

Following negotiations between the two sides on 3 March, Ukraine and Russia have agreed tentatively to create humanitarian corridors7 in the worst-affected areas of Ukraine, where civilians are most at risk from the war. But in reality, there is no clarity on how these passages could be implemented.

In line with this, we call on your organisations to:

Urgently establish safe, open and uninterrupted corridors for humanitarian workers and supplies, including essential food and medicine, to reach people in need throughout Ukraine (particularly in cities in eastern, southern and central Ukraine currently under attack).

Create a coordinated and agile system for assessing needs and tracking available services and supplies’ shortages and organising coordinated international response to address it.

Urgently support the establishment of inter-agency safe corridors for the evacuation of all people wishing to leave Ukraine, regardless of nationality, to neighbouring countries.

Organise transport of lifesaving cargo both for internally displaced people in Ukraine and refugees outside the country.

Engage in a sustained and coordinated manner with local and national authorities of neighbouring countries, and of expected destination countries, to ensure:
+ Continued safe entry and passage of people fleeing Ukraine (without the need for visas or other burdensome administrative requirements).
+ Distribution of food, COVID-19 personal protective equipment and medicine, including antiretroviral therapy (ARV) and/or opioid agonist treatment, without discrimination.
+ Safe and uninterrupted circulation of essential food and medicines — including utilisation of the simplified control procedures for the export, transportation and provision of medicinal products containing controlled substances, as recommended by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).

Help to ensure the parties to the conflict take the necessary measures to account for protected people, including prisoners of war and detainees.

Apply all efforts to negotiate this issue with both Russian and Ukrainian authorities through all possible channels, to ensure safe and effective humanitarian corridors are established as quickly as possible.

A humanitarian corridor for Ukraine - Joint open letter

To: Ms Ghada Waly, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Subject: Open letter on UNODC statement on International Human Rights Day 2021

We urge you to mark International Human Rights Day 2021 by calling on Member States to change drug policies and practices that violate human rights and perpetuate inequality and discrimination.

We are writing to you ahead of International Human Rights Day 2021, which will take place on the 10th December amidst escalating global demands for the reform of laws and practices that entrench racial discrimination and social inequality, including drug policies. Last year, IDPC – together with dozens of other civil society and community organisations – called on you to issue a statement on International Human Rights Day urging Member States to change drug laws and practices that undermine health and human rights. A year later, we ask you to seize this day as an opportunity to show UNODC´s alignment with other UN entities in calling for an end to drug policies and practices that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, and violate human rights.

For decades, punitive drug policies have driven widespread human rights abuses, as has been amply documented by the UN. These include the death penalty for drug offences; extrajudicial killings; arbitrary detention, often masquerading as ‘rehabilitation’; the denial of access to life-saving harm reduction services; widespread barriers to accessing controlled medicines for pain relief; the criminalisation of people who use drugs, subsistence farmers and others groups in situations of vulnerability; corporal punishment; and mass incarceration. In all of these cases, draconian drug policies have disproportionately affected people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, thus entrenching inequality and discrimination.

Along 2021, a broad range of UN entities called on Member States to reform drug policies with discriminatory outcomes. In June 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released a landmark study on arbitrary detention and drug polices, which found that ´

the war on drugs may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people. Its impact is often greatest on those who are poor, but also frequently overlaps with discrimination in law enforcement directed at vulnerable groups

´. At the same time, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a new ‘Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality´, highlighting that ´

The discriminatory application of criminal law must be tackled at every stage, including by reforming drug-related policies

´. The High Commissioner´s proposal led to Human Rights Council Resolution 47/21, which contains key commitments to uproot systemic racism in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. The Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, adopted in June 2021, also showcased the international community´s commitment to ending inequalities as a step towards ending AIDS. Lastly, the new UN system Common Position on Incarceration, led by UNODC in partnership with other UN entities, notes ‘

the overrepresentation of minority and marginalized groups among prisoners, many of whom are charged with petty and nonviolent offences

support reform efforts aimed at ensuring proportionate and individualized sentencing and alternatives to conviction or punishment in appropriate cases, including for minor drug-related offences

These various commitments emerging across the United Nations are aligned with the 2018 Chief Executives Board’s UN System Common Position on drug-related matters, which makes clear that ‘

should be designed and implemented by States in accordance with their human rights obligations

’, and commits all UN agencies, including UNODC, to support drug policies ‘

that put people, health, and human rights at the centre

Similar human rights concerns have been highlighted in the just-released Global Drug Policy Index, which measures and ranks the national drug policies of 30 countries according to how well they align with the UN system Common Position on Drugs and its Task Team report of March 2019.

The theme of the 2021 International Human Rights Day is ‘Equality: Reducing inequalities, advancing human rights’, and is aimed at ´

addressing and finding solutions for deep-rooted forms of discrimination that have affected the most vulnerable people in societies

´. As such, it presents a crucial opportunity for UNODC to align itself with other UN entities in calling for the end of policies that perpetuate inequality and discrimination, while highlighting its commitment to the promotion of human rights, in line with the UN system Common Positions.

It is in this context that we urge you to issue a strong statement on International Human Rights Day, calling on states to change the drug laws, policies and practices that violate health and human rights, and entrench inequality. To be credible, such a statement should explicitly acknowledge the disproportionate impact of drug laws and drug control on people marginalised on the basis of their gender, race, ethnicity, and economic status, and urge Member States to:

Abolish the death penalty in all circumstances. Imposing capital punishment for drug offences has been found to be contrary to international human rights law by the Human Rights Committee, and the Human Rights Council.

Put an immediate end to extrajudicial killings committed in the name of drug control, as has been repeatedly called for by the Human Rights Council and UN human rights experts.

Permanently close compulsory drug detention centres, including those that masquerade as ‘rehabilitation’, and implement voluntary, evidence-informed, and rights-based health and social services, as recently called for by sixteen UN agencies, including UNODC.

Stress the urgent need to provide accessible, affordable, and adequately funded harm reduction services in community and closed settings, to fulfil the right to health and the right to life of people who use drugs, as demanded by several UN human rights bodies and experts. This is also central to UNODC’s core role as lead UNAIDS co-sponsor regarding prisons and HIV amongst people who use drugs.

Take immediate measures to address prison overcrowding, as already recommended by UNODC and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, by promoting alternatives to incarceration, and ensuring proportionate sentencing for all drug offences, including by taking into account mitigating factors – in line with the basic principle that prisons should only be used as a last resort in all circumstances.

Ensure that people who use drugs are not subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment – whether in state custody or public or private drug services. While under detention, people with a drug dependence or health problems associated with their drug use must be offered evidence-based treatment, harm reduction and other drug services on a strictly voluntary basis.

Promote the end of all punishment for drug use, and drug possession and cultivation for personal use, as permitted within the three drug control conventions. Such policy shifts will help to end the stigma, criminalisation, and exclusion faced by people who use drugs, and to facilitate access to health and social services, as called for by the UN system Common Position, UNAIDS, and UN human rights bodies.

Make sure that drug policies incorporate a gender-sensitive perspective. This should be done by tailoring drug services to the specific needs of women, and by ensuring that criminal laws take into account the circumstances of women involved in drug offences, as most of them come from backgrounds of poverty, marginalisation, and oppression.

Clearly outline the ways in which UNODC will work to achieve these changes, and the measures being taken to ensure that human rights are effectively embedded as a core strand for all of the Office’s work.

As the lead UN agency in drug-related matters, UNODC has the responsibility to promote drug policies that respect, protect, and fulfil human rights, in a way that is consistent with the standards developed by the UN system, and in line with the commitments set in the UN system Common Positions on drugs and on incarceration. A strong statement in the forthcoming International Human Rights Day would be an important and welcome step to signal UNODC’s unequivocal commitment.

We look forward to discussing these concerns and recommendations with you.

Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network

Region

Translations

Related Content