féda brussels, the Brussels Federation of Institutions for Drug and Addictions federates 29 institutions active in awareness, prevention, harm reduction, care and support relative to the consumptions of psychoactive substances and addictions.



féda bxl, la federación bruselense de instituciones especializadas en drogas y adicciones (antes FEDITO BXL), reúne a 29 instituciones activas en Bruselas en materia de información, prevención, reducción de daños, asistencia, apoyo y epidemiología relacionadas con el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas (alcohol, tabaco y otras drogas legales o ilegales) y las adicciones (con o sin productos).

La féda bxl, fédération bruxelloise des institutions spécialisées en matière de drogues et addictions asbl (anciennement FEDITO BXL), rassemble 29 institutions actives à Bruxelles dans l’information, la prévention, la réduction des risques, les soins, l’accompagnement et l’épidémiologie relatives aux consommations de substances psychoactives (alcool, tabac et autres drogues légales ou illégales) et aux addictions (avec ou sans produit).

Fédération bruxelloise des institutions spécialisées en matière de drogues et addictions (féda bxl)

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.

NGOs urge UNODC's Executive Director to mark Human Rights Day with a call to reform drug policies that entrench inequality

Universal Periodic Review of Belgium (38th UPR session, May 2021) - Recommendations related to health and people who use drugs

1. Adopt a public health approach to drug use and drug addiction, and decriminalize people who use drugs:

The Belgian law on the trafficking of poisonous, soporific, narcotic, psychotropic, disinfectant or antiseptic substances provides for prison terms of three months to five years and fines of one thousand to one hundred thousand euros. While this law does not punish consumption 

, drug users are nonetheless targeted through the criminalization of drug possession for personal use.

This law dates back to February 24, 1921, and urgently requires an in-depth revision. Despite a century of prohibition, the prevalence of drug use in Belgium has only increased (more than twofold in the last 20 years), as has drug trafficking. The differentiated enforcement of this law, based on ethnic and social profiling, has also given rise to serious inequalities and injustice. But the biggest failure of criminalization lies in its inability to provide an adequate response in terms of public health, protection and empowerment of people who use drugs, and support to those with addictions and other use problems related to illegal drugs. It is therefore urgent to take into account the positive public health outcomes witnessed elsewhere as a result of the decriminalization of users.

Countries that have decriminalized use and possession for personal use for at least some drugs include Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czechia, Germany, the Netherlands, Ghana, Italy, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Uruguay.

The recommendation to decriminalize drug use and ancillary activities has already been made by a plethora of international human rights bodies, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the guidelines for action set out in the UN System Common Position on drug matters (2018). A recent analysis of over 100 peer-reviewed studies showed criminalization has a negative effect on access to HIV prevention and treatment.

 Amend the Law of February 24, 1921 in order to adopt a public health approach to drug use and drug addiction, including through the decriminalization of drug possession for personal use.

2. Provide legal certainty to drug consumption rooms

Drug consumption rooms (DCRs) are spaces in which illegal drugs can be used under the supervision of trained staff, with the aim of reducing the risks of disease transmission through unhygienic injecting, preventing drug-related overdose deaths, and connecting high-risk drug users with addiction treatment and other health and social services. In 2018, a total of 78 DCRs operated across seven countries in the EU alone (including Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain), as well as in other countries such as Canada, Switzerland and Australia. As shown by the EU agency on drugs and drug addiction, there is a substantial body of evidence showing their effectiveness in reducing high-risk injecting behavior. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health has also encouraged the establishment of DCRs.

A DCR reopened in Liège in 2018, and others are planned in Brussels and Charleroi. However, the law of February 24, 1921, which had been adopted, among other reasons, to ban opium dens, formally prohibits "providing a premise" to facilitate the consumption of a controlled substance. While city and regional authorities support and subsidize these projects, DCRs 

remain in violation of the law, and exist in great legal uncertainty.

 Amend the law of February 24, 1921 in order to provide legal certainty to health interventions such as drug consumption rooms (DCRs).

Health and people who use drugs: Recommendations for the UPR of Belgium

At a seminar held in Brussels today, the Civil Society Forum on Drugs urged the European Parliament to prioritize and fund drug policies based on evidence and human rights.

On 5 December 2019, the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD), an expert group of the European Commission, organized a seminar for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) entitled ‘The Future of European Drug Policy’.

The event comes at a time when the EU is facing significant challenges in tackling the illicit drug market. Despite the EU’s efforts to counter the drug problem, drug trafficking and production remain among the most profitable criminal activities in the region, while the health and social harms associated with drug use continue to rise, with more than 8,000 drug-related deaths reported in 2019. Drug-related issues affect millions of people within the EU, bringing with them complex health, security, social and criminal justice issues.

The expiry of the current European Drugs Strategy (2013-20) and Action Plan (2017-20) represent a key opportunity to be seized by the EU. It is a chance to review successes and failures of European drug policy and to build on the learnings and challenges from the last decade, by continuing to prioritize a drug policy approach grounded in the principles of public health and human rights.

Civil society urges European Parliament to make drug policy a priority

Given the limited scientific knowledge of the day, it is understandable to a degree that the architects of the current international enforcement regime on drugs believed sixty years ago in the concept of total eradication of drug production and use. Nowadays, however, it is impossible to ignore the scientific insights and experiences that have been acquired since then in this regard: it is impossible to reduce production and trafficking in illegal drugs and their consumption on a global scale, and certainly not within the border-free European Union. In other words: the global ‘war on drugs’ launched in the 1980s cannot be won and only serves to create additional problems such as corruption, violence and illegal drug revenue in a number of countries worldwide (e.g. Paoli, Reuter & Greenfield, 2009). For decades, debate surrounding alternative regulatory models has been suppressed with the argument, among others, that international agreements and obligations do not permit it (Van Dijk, 1997). But after years of apparent immobility, several countries are presently engaged in an active search for ways to abandon the ‘war on drugs’ path – especially with respect to cannabis. A significant change of course via established international accords is unlikely in the short term because consensus is necessary in this regard and a number of traditionally exceptionally repressive countries might be inclined to obstruct already complicated procedures (Bewley-Taylor, 2003; Hall & Lynskey, 2009). Moreover, international organizations such as the United Nations (via the activities of the International Narcotics Control Board) – in addition to the European action plans – steer consistently in the direction of a uniform and strict approach to the drugs phenomenon. (Boekhout van Solinge, 2002; Roberts et al., 2005; Blom, 2006; Van Kempen & Fedorova, 2014).

In the meantime, many countries are well aware that the points of departure of the ‘war on drugs’ can only be disavowed on the basis of a policy realignment at the local and national levels, in particular when it comes to cannabis (Levine, 2003; Teurlings & Cohen, 2005; Chatwin, 2007). More and more countries, regions and cities have been testing the flexibility of the international agreements because they want to gain deeper insights into the complex character of the drugs phenomenon and potential strategies to deal with it (Bewley-Taylor, 2003; Roberts et al., 2005). They are no longer willing to wait and see what will happen in terms of the revision of international accords and agreements, but are determined by contrast to develop a policy without delay that will allow them to get a grip of the phenomenon and its problematic dimensions (Bewley-Taylor, 2003).

Uruguay and several American states (e.g. Colorado and Washington) have already opted for a regulation of the entire cannabis market, which Canada has announced that it plans to do the same in the summer of 2018. The Dutch coalition agreement of October 2017 allows for an experiment whereby a number of large municipalities are permitted to stock local Coffee Shops via government regulated cannabis production. The authoritative Global Commission on Drug Policy (members including Javier Solana, George Schultz, Kofi Annan, Richard Branson and the former presidents of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Mexico, Poland and Portugal) has advocated uninterruptedly for an end to the global ‘war on drugs’ since June 2011 (Global Commission on Drug Policy, 2011). In Europe, countries such as Portugal, Switzerland and the Czech Republic have already implemented important reforms in terms of decriminalization.

Time for a new Belgian policy on cannabis?

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs, an expert group of the EU Commission, is urging the Commission to provide adequate funding and staff to drug coordination and support demand and harm reduction interventions.

The European Commission is preparing the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) to define budget priorities for the post-2020 period. There are many concerned civil society voices warning us that EU decision makers would like to deprioritise social and health programs while there is a growing focus on security, border control and migration issues. Drug policy is a multidisciplinary field that has strong connections to both security and health policies – and its health and social elements are often left out of consideration. The drugs unit of the European Commission, that coordinates work in this area, has been renamed the Organised Crime and Drugs Policy Unit and is seriously underfunded and understaffed. This is a significant obstacle to the strengthening of coordination efforts in the implementation of the European Union Drug Strategy and the newly adopted Action Plan for 2017-2020, an example of pragmatism, humanism, and evidence-based policies unique in the world.

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD), an expert group of the European Commission, has sent a letter to the Commission recommending to strengthen drug coordination in the administrative structure of the European Commission, by providing adequate funding and staff to this issue. We also urge the Commission to prioritise social and public health interventions to reduce drug demand and drug-related harms in the new MFF. You can read the text of the letter below.

Civil society recommends the EU to strengthen drug coordination

Em tempos de radicalização da violação de direitos e ameaça à democracia, é preciso defender a radicalidade da potência do cuidado. Para tanto apresentamos esta 

[1], região da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, onde se situa a Fundação Oswaldo Cruz[2] e diversas favelas e comunidades pobres que são constantemente atingidas pela nefasta e violenta política de guerra às drogas que criminaliza e autoriza ações bélicas, neste como em tantos outros territórios periféricos de toda a América Latina.

O mundo vive um momento de avanço das forças conservadoras, que na América Latina se expressa através da fragilização dos processos democráticos; no aprofundamento das iniquidades socioeconômicas; no aumento da fragmentação e segregação social. Tais dinâmicas, em seu conjunto, põem em risco direitos fundamentais. Exemplo emblemático foi a recente intervenção no bairro da Luz, na cidade de São Paulo. Durante quatro anos sustentou-se um projeto intersetorial inspirado nos princípios da Redução de Danos que visava articular ações de garantia de direitos à moradia, trabalho/renda e cuidado na região conhecida como “cracolândia”. Em maio de 2017 foi realizada uma operação policial com a intenção de uma “limpeza social”, com utilização do pânico moral para atender a interesses da especulação imobiliária. A violência e as arbitrariedades contra pessoas em situação de extrema pobreza e vulnerabilidade social, rotuladas como “viciados em crack”, seguiram-se por dias. Assim, uma política pública de cuidado, promoção da saúde e de direitos foi substituída pela repressão e violação de direitos.

Arbitrariedades como estas não são exclusivas do Brasil, e casos similares são encontrados em muitos lugares da América Latina, onde a droga funciona como pretexto para intervenção territorial. Ocorrem também outras situações de violência estrutural, como dificuldade de acesso a políticas públicas, assassinatos, prisões, exposição a doenças infectocontagiosas, falta de acesso a medicações e a políticas que garantam a cidadania.

As políticas de Redução de Danos, em seus esforços pela promoção da saúde, cidadania, direito à cidade, justiça social e direitos humanos das pessoas que usam drogas, não está isenta dos efeitos da conjuntura conservadora. O atual modelo de política de drogas opera seletivamente, criminalizando, encarcerando e estigmatizando sobretudo as populações mais pobres, moradoras de regiões periféricas, e de modo diferenciado as pessoas em situação de rua, negras, indígenas, mulheres e jovens.

As experiências bem sucedidas de cuidado são opostas à violência intervencionista defendida pelas políticas conservadoras. As evidências e o acúmulo político da Redução de Danos rejeitam propostas que não reconhecem a diversidade da experiência humana, e que se utilizem apenas da racionalidade biomédica e da criminalização de condutas consideradas desviantes. A Redução de Danos que realizamos no cotidiano de nossas práticas, em todo o continente, se apresenta como alternativa concreta ao fracasso de concepções e intervenções dicotômicas e simplistas. Não obstante, é preciso avançar ainda mais na direção de uma Redução de Danos interseccional, capaz de articular a defesa da reforma das políticas de drogas às lutas das mulheres, da população negra, dos povos indígenas, LGBTI’s e das múltiplas juventudes.

Diante disso, propomos a formulação de uma Redução de Danos inserida num projeto despenalizador e emancipatório, em que experiências subjetivas e corporais não sejam objeto de ações repressivas e disciplinadoras. A Redução de Danos, no atual contexto, é ferramenta potente de questionamento dos modelos de controle, implicando a afirmação e respeito à liberdade e autonomia das pessoas que usam drogas.

Consideramos urgente compartilhar nossas experiências e resistências, promovendo intercâmbios que consolidem nossa articulação Latino Americana em defesa de políticas públicas de Redução de Danos conectadas a reforma da política de drogas.

Assinam a Carta de Manguinhos as seguintes organizações e instituições:

Institutional Program on Alcohol, Crack and other Drugs of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - PACD/Fiocruz (Brazil)

International Drug Policy Consortium – IDPC

Brazilian Association of Harm Reduction Workers – ABORDA (Brazil)

Brazilian Platform on Drug Policy - PBPD (Brazil)

Brazilian Association of Collective Health – ABRASCO (Brazil)

Brazilian Association of Mental Health – ABRASME (Brazil)

Brazilian Network for Harm Reduction and Human Rights – REDUC (Brazil)

Intercambios Asociación Civil (Argentina)

Asociación Costarricense para el Estudio e Intervención em Drogas – ACEID (Costa Rica)

Acción Técnica Social – ATS (Colombia)

International Network of People who Use Drugs - INPUD

Pares en Acción-Reacción Contra la Exclusión Social - PARCES (Colombia)

Centro Cáritas de Formación para la Atención de las Farmacodependencias y Situaciones Críticas Asociadas (Mexico)

Associação Brasileira Multidisciplinar sobre Drogas - ABRAMD (Brazil)

Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais Rio de Janeiro – GTNM/RJ (Brazil)

Iniciativa Negra por uma Nova Política de Drogas – INNPD (Brazil)

Associação Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré (Brazil)

Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento - APDES (Portugal)

Drug Policy Alliance – DPA (United States)

Washington Office on Latin America – WOLA (United States)

International Centre for Science in Drug Policy – ICSDP (Canada)

South Indian Harm Reduction Network – SIHRN (India)

Transform Drug Policy Foundation (United Kingdom)

Union for Improved Services, Communication and Education (Ireland)

Teenswatch Community Harm Reduction (Kenia)

Centro de Prevención de las Adicciones de Bariloche (Argentina)

Fundación Latinoamérica Reforma (Chile)

Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral - 

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Jamaica)

Fédération Bruxelloise Francophone des Institutions pour Toxicomane – FEDITO (Belgium)

Association de lutte contre le sida – ALCS (Marocos)

Global Call to Action Against Poverty - GCAP (Burundi)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (Australia)

Association des Guides du Congo – AGC (Congo)

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPS (United States)

Washington Heights Corner Project (United States)

New York Harm Reduction Educators (United States)

Students for Sensible Drug Policy - SSDP (United States)

Elementa Consultoría en Derechos (Colombia)

Andean Information Network - AIN (Bolivia)

Puente, Investigacion y Enlace - PIE (Bolivia)

Estudiantes por una Política Sensata de Drogas (Costa Rica)

Asociación de Vecinos La Teja Barial (Uruguay)

Observatorio de cultivos y cultivadores declarados ilícitos - OCCDI (Colombia)

Corporación Humanas - Centro Regional de Derechos Humanos y Justicia de Género (Colombia)

Instituto Helena Greco de Direitos Humanos e Cidadania (Brazil)

Conselho Regional de Serviço Social do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Coletivo Balance de Redução de Danos (Brazil)

Associação Brasileira de Estudos Sociais sobre o Uso de Psicoativos - ABESUP (Brazil)

Laboratório de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre Psicoativos – LEIPSI (Brazil)

Centro de Pesquisa, Intervenção e Avaliação em Álcool e Drogas – CREPEIA (Brazil)

Centro de Referência sobre Drogas e Vulnerabilidades Associadas da UNB Ceilândia (Brazil)

Rede Nacional de Feministas Antiproibiocionistas - RENFA (Brazil)

Associação Multidisciplinar de Estudos sobre a Maconha Medicinal - AMEMM (Brazil)

Grupo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Substâncias Psicoativas - GIESP/UFBA (Brazil)

Fórum Intersetorial de Drogas e Direitos Humanos de São Paulo - FIDDH (Brazil)

Fórum Estadual de Redução de Danos de São Paulo - FERD (Brazil)

Dispositivo de Abordaje Territorial Rosario - DIAT (Argentina)

New Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing – New PATH (United States)

Carta de Manguinhos: Um apelo global para proteger a redução de danos na América Latina

At a time when rights violations and threats to democracy are deepening, it is necessary to defend the fundamental role of care. With this in mind, we present this 

, a region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Fiocruz[2] and, much more drastically, many favelas and poor communities have been constantly hit by despicable and violent war-on-drugs policies that criminalize drug users and authorize warlike actions on whole populations, like in so many other marginalized regions across Latin America and the world.

The world is currently witnessing a rise in conservative forces which, in Latin America, has translated into the weakening of democratic processes; the deepening of socioeconomic inequities; and an exacerbation of social breakdown and segregation. Taken together, such dynamics risk undermining fundamental rights. One emblematic example is the recent intervention that took place in the District of Luz, in the city of São Paulo. For four years, a multisectoral project inspired by the principles of harm reduction aimed to articulate actions to guarantee the right to housing, work / income and care in the region known as "

" A police operation aimed at "social cleansing" took place in May 2017, using moral panic to serve the interests of real estate speculators. This was followed by weeks of violence and arbitrary actions against socially vulnerable people living in extreme poverty, labeled as "crack addicts." A public policy focusing on care, health and promoting rights was thus replaced with repression and rights violations.

Such arbitrariness is not limited to Brazil – similar cases can be found in many areas of Latin America, where the presence of drugs serves as a pretext for territorial intervention. Other forms of structural violence include difficulties in accessing public services, murders, incarceration, exposure to infectious diseases, lack of access to medicines and absence of policies that aim to protect citizens’ rights.

Because of their focus on promoting health, citizenship, the right to access the city, social justice and drug users’ human rights, harm reduction policies have not been exempt from the effects of the conservative juncture. The current drug policy model is implemented selectively, by specifically criminalizing, imprisoning and stigmatizing the poorest groups living in marginal regions, homeless people, black and/or indigenous people, as well as women and youth.

Successful approaches focusing on care reject the interventionist violence defended by conservative policies. The evidences, ethic and political knowhow of harm reduction reject policies that fail to recognize the diversity of human experience and only rely on biomedical rationality and the criminalization of what is considered to be divergent behaviors. The harm reduction interventions that we are carrying out in our daily lives across the continent - and perhaps in other parts of the world - represent a concrete alternative to failed binary and simplistic concepts and interventions. It is nevertheless necessary to move even further towards a multisectoral harm reduction approach that is capable of articulating support for drug policy reform with the struggles of women, blacks, indigenous peoples, LGBTI and youth.

Given this situation, we propose a harm reduction approach grounded in decriminalization and emancipation, in which subjective and corporeal experiences are no longer exposed to repressive and disciplinary actions. Harm reduction is a powerful tool to question current models of control, and includes the promotion and respect for the freedom and autonomy of people who use drugs.

We consider it urgent to share our experiences and resistance, and promote a dialogue in Latin America - and elsewhere - with the view of consolidating our argument in defense of public harm reduction policies as they relate to drug policy reform.

The following organizations and institutions sign the 

Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral - 

Letter from Manguinhos: A global call to protect harm reduction in Latin America

Civil society groups from all over the world have released a statement condemning governments for failing to acknowledge the devastating consequences of punitive and repressive drug policies as they prepare for a UN summit on the issue next month.

In April 2016, world leaders will gather in New York to decide on the future of global drug policy, at the first UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the topic in two decades. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for this meeting to be a “wide-ranging and open debate that considers all options.” But as the preparations continue this week in Vienna at an annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, it is becoming clear that the ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to rethink the failed ‘war on drugs’ is unlikely to deliver.

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

Fédération bruxelloise des institutions spécialisées en matière de drogues et addictions (féda bxl)

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