INPUD is a global network of people who use and have used drugs. INPUD has an evolving regional network structure and also strong ties with a number of national and local drug user organisations. A key role of the organisation is to support people who use drugs to access and take part in international policy processes.

El INPUD es una red mundial constituida de personas que usan o han usado drogas. Su estructura en red es cambiante. La organización ha desarrollado estrechos vínculos con una serie de organizaciones nacionales y locales cuyos miembros son usuarios de drogas. Uno de los papeles claves de la organización es ayudar a los usuarios de drogas a tener acceso y participar a los procesos de decisión política al nivel internacional..

INPUD est un réseau mondial constitué de personnes qui consomment ou on consommé de la drogue. Sa structure en réseau est en constante évolution. L’organisation a, par ailleurs, développé des liens étroits avec un certain nombre d’organisations nationales et locales constituées d’usagers de drogues. L’un des rôles clés de l’organisation consiste à aider les usagers de drogue à avoir accès et à participer aux processus internationaux de décision.

International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD)

Legal and policy frameworks play an important role in protecting and promoting the right to health for people who use drugs by ensuring access to HIV and related services. Conversely, laws that criminalise drug use and aggressive law enforcement, which are both underpinned by and exacerbate stigma, discrimination and violence against people who use drugs, can exacerbate the marginalisation of people who use drugs, create barriers to their access to essential HIV services, harm reduction and protection against overdose and increase the impact of HIV and poor sexual and reproductive health on their lives.

It is recognized that “criminalisation of drug use, restrictive drug policies and aggressive law-enforcement practices are key drivers of HIV and hepatitis C epidemics among people who inject drugs” a view that is shared by several United Nations agencies. The Global Commission on HIV and the Law has recognised that these factors, together with fear of arrest, discrimination, marginalisation, stigmatisation and violence, drive people who inject drugs underground and exclude them from proper access to the harm reduction and health services they need to prevent overdose and protect themselves from HIV and hepatitis C.

The Global Commission on HIV and the Law was an independent body convened by UNDP on behalf of the UNAIDS family from 2010 to 2012. During its 18-month process, the Global Commission examined the impact of laws, policies and practices on HIV in seven regions of the world. The Commission’s report contains evidence that protective legal environments improve the lives of people living with HIV and reduce vulnerability to HIV infection. Across the globe, it also found evidence that stigma, discrimination, punitive laws, police violence and lack of access to justice continue to fuel the HIV epidemic. Laws that criminalise aspects of sex work, same-sex relations and drug use can lead to increased violence and brutality against these key populations, driving them away from health care and harm reduction services.

If we are to improve access to essential HIV services as well as to the harm reduction and health services for people who use drugs, it is critical that we identify the laws, policies and practices that act as barriers to access to these services for people who use drugs and advocate for their removal.

Legal Environment Scan: A drug user-led monitoring toolkit of legal and policy framework

The International Network of Women who Use Drugs (INWUD) is excited to announce the top three winners of the Narcofeminism Blog Competition “Our bodies, Our choice, Our rights, Our voice”

1st Prize Emily Arnold, Junkies, sluts and feminists: where are we in the witch legacy?

2nd Prize Jessica Spratt, Owning My Pleasure

3rd Prize Violet Maodi, Stigma and discrimination have no place in my life

INWUD aims to address the specific needs and rights of women who use drugs and women living with HIV. We do this by providing a women-only safe space for engaging in global advocacy with stakeholders. We believe in meaningful engagement and empowerment of women who use drugs to take control of their own narrative about drug use. To this end, INWUD launched the Narcofeminism blog competition to create space for women to share their rich life experiences and lessons learned. The diversity and breadth of all these stories and life lessons have the capacity to change the lives of other women while challenging public perception and stereotypes about women who use drugs.

Women assert their voices in conversations about drug use

The Global Fund invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programmes in more than 100 low-and-middle-income countries and is committed to protecting and promoting human rights, including of key populations. It is therefore critical that corruption, fraud, human rights violations, mismanagement, and misuse of Global Fund funding are reported, investigated, and resolved. The Global Fund has charged the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) with the responsibility to investigate irregularities in programmes it supports and to provide effective complaints mechanisms for whistle-blowers to report all wrongdoings relating to Global Fund activities. The main objective of the mechanism is to ensure equal access to high quality services and programmes for all, and to provide communities with a secure communication channel to voice their concerns regarding alleged offences.

The OIG is independent of the Global Fund Secretariat. It reports directly to the Global Fund Board through its Audit and Finance Committee. This is to ensure transparency and objectivity of its work and to improve accountability of the Global Fund work at the national level and in the Secretariat.

The OIG’s mandate is wider than investigations. It also includes internal audits, in-country reviews, inspections, and counter-fraud, among others. However, this guide focuses only on the investigation side of the OIG work and explains step by step how people who use drugs can use this mechanism effectively to report human right violations, fraud, corruption, and other wrongdoings. To learn more what the OIG understands as wrongdoings, read the ‘What wrongdoings can you report?’ section below.

To encourage more people (whistle-blowers) to report any alleged wrongdoings and to promote the complaints mechanism, the OIG has launched the ‘I Speak Out’ campaign and e-learning platform. Visit their website ispeakoutnow.org to learn about different types of wrongdoings, read case studies, and to file a complaint. You can also find tips and advice on how to do it effectively as outlined in the report.

Global Fund Complaints Mechanism: How can people who use drugs use it effectively?

In this short film we summarise what the community of people who use drugs in Portugal acknowledges about the famous drug policy model of Portugal, but also what they would like to see improved.

The Portuguese drug policy model is often highlighted as the principal model of progressive drug policy. The country’s decision to decriminalise drug use in 2001 had indeed many positive impacts upon the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs, but the number of people convicted for the crime of drug consumption is raising again. To paint a picture of the portuguese legislation as perfect, or a magic wand that addresses all the issues around drugs, would be a mistake. Drugreporter co-produced this new short film with 

Decriminalisation in Portugal: Through the lens of people who use drugs

Making the most of civil society participation in the development of a general comment on “impacts of drug policies on economic, social and cultural rights”

In October 2022, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) decided to initiate work on a new General comment on the “impacts of drug policies on economic, social and cultural rights.” This joint briefing includes an overview of likely next steps in the drafting process and suggested themes that the Comment may address. This briefing was produced jointly with the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), Amnesty International, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC).

“General comments” are authoritative interpretations by treaty bodies of thematic issues or provisions of human rights treaties - in this case, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which is one of the core international human rights treaties and has been ratified by 171 countries. The aim of general comments is to clarify the duties of countries that have ratified the treaties with respect to specific provisions, in this way helping State parties better implement the rights enshrined in the treaties. For civil society, a general comment is a powerful tool to advocate for reform and hold authorities accountable. 

Each Committee sets up the process for drafting a General Comment, and no official timeline has been published yet for the discussion of this particular one. Based on CESCR practice, the drafting process for this new Comment is expected to include the following steps, although specific times and elements of the process can change: 

Selection of Committee drafting group / Rapporteur(s) by CESCR; 

Call for written inputs on the situation of human rights impact to drug policies, topics or issues to be covered by the Comment, and any other relevant information; 

Development of a CESCR Working Paper as the basis for discussing the content of the Comment; 

Regional and/or global consultations with communities and civil society, experts, and academia; 

Publication of a first draft of the Comment; 

Day of General Discussion. These Days normally include panel discussions on specific themes and/or questions and are preceded by written contributions; 

In-depth discussion of the text and potential call for written inputs on the first draft; 

Call for written contributions, and possibly more consultations, on the revised draft; 

Deliberation and adoption by the Committee. It is our understanding that the General Comment would likely be finalised by the end of 2024, subject to confirmation by the CESCR Secretariat

UN CESCR general comment on drug policies: Maximising civil society engagement

By the International Network of People who use Drugs, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association and Harm Reduction International

In advance of the Global Fund Seventh Replenishment Conference to be hosted by President Biden in New York on September 19, 2022, the International Network of People who use Drugs (INPUD), the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) and Harm Reduction International (HRI) developed key harm reduction messages from implementation of the new Global Fund Strategy and the NFM4 cycle.

Harm reduction investment from international donors and governments in low and middle-income (LMI) countries totalled US$131 million in 2019 - just 5% of the US$2.7 billion UNAIDS estimates is required annually by 2025 for an effective HIV response among people who inject drugs. The Global Fund is the largest donor for harm reduction, providing at least 60% of all international donor support. The outcome of the replenishment will have significant consequences for harm reduction. The protection and scale-up of harm reduction programmes in low- and middle-income countries requires a fully funded Global Fund. An underfunded Global Fund will result in service closures, a reversal of gains made in HIV prevention among people who use drugs and ultimately, lives lost.

They urge the Global Fund and the wider donor community to be proactive in protecting harm reduction within all replenishment scenarios, in implementation of the Global Fund Strategy 2023-2028 and during the NFM4 cycle. The recommendations centre on the following five areas:

Harm reduction funding must be protected from any replenishment shortfall

Catalytic investments for harm reduction and key populations must continue regardless of replenishment outcome

Funding for community-led responses must be prioritised within NFM4, both for harm reduction and pandemic preparedness and responses

Funding for efforts to increase domestic investment in harm reduction, and broader key population programming must be increased

Funding for harm reduction in crisis must be protected and prioritised

Key harm reduction messages for the replenishment conference, implementation of new Global Fund Strategy and NFM4

When: Tuesday, 27 September. 14:00 - 15:30 Central European Summer Time (CEST)

The Global Fund is the largest donor of harm reduction in low-and middle-income countries and its funding is critical for protecting the human rights of people who use drugs, ensuring access to health care and strengthening community systems. Both the Global Fund and UNAIDS put people and communities at the front and centre of their strategies.

To end AIDS and deliver on the ambitious 2025 targets, including the 10-10-10 societal enablers targets and the 80-60-30 community-led responses targets, people who use drugs need to be meaningfully engaged in all Global Fund programmes and processes at all levels. This will require community empowerment and investment in community and key population-led service delivery, research and advocacy.

In preparation for the Global Fund 2023-2025 grant cycle (New Funding Model 4/NFM4), INPUD is organising a webinar to introduce people who use drugs to NFM and particularly NFM4 with the aim to mobilise the community to engage in the processes on national level and influence their outcomes.




• To introduce Global Fund NFM to people who use drugs
• To present Global Fund NFM4 processes and timelines
• To provide tips on how to support community moblisation to maximise engagement in NFM4

The webinar will take place over one and a half hours. Discussion and Q&A from the audience will follow presentations by speakers from INPUD, the Kenya Sex Workers Alliance, PKNI, the Global Fund and UNAIDS.

NFM4: How people who use drugs can meaningfully engage

 is a United Nations human rights mechanism that monitors, analyses, and highlights human rights violations. In this mechanism, Member States undergo a review of their human rights record conducted by other States and civil society in four-to-five-year cycles. Each UPR review cycle results in the States under review receiving and accepting recommendations addressing human rights concerns highlighted during the process. States are then tasked with adopting these recommendations through national policies and agendas before they are reviewed again in their next UPR review.

For communities and networks of people who use drugs, the UPR can be a useful mechanism for long-term change. Shadow reports submitted by community help to inform which recommendations are suggested to States under review. While recommendations can take years to implement and are subject to political shifts at the national level, they also provide a tool to measure progress on improving the human rights situation for people who use drugs. The UPR also offers a more intersectional platform to review human rights compared to other UN treaty bodies. This makes it ideal for addressing the complex and diverse human rights issues faced by people who use drugs (for example cross-cutting issues of gender, race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation and gender identity and expression).




• Introduce the UPR process and its relevance for people who use drugs
• Provide simple steps for submitting a shadow report for consideration in the UPR review cycle
• Provide tips and recommendations for writing a shadow report and conducting follow-up advocacy
• Provide links to resources that may be useful

Universal Periodic Review: How people who use drugs can engage and impact state reviews

Conducting advocacy in online environments is more important than ever. While this shift has brought certain advantages, it can also bring problems and limitations, especially for drug user organisations operating within spaces which are hostile to our community.

With this in mind, INPUD has developed this tip sheet on conducting digital high-level advocacy as people who use drugs. This can include meetings at the global level, such as the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) or High-Level Meeting (HLM) on HIV/AIDS, as well as meetings at the national level such as drug control meetings or technical working groups on HIV and harm reduction. These tips were developed in consultation with drug user advocates within the INPUD global network. The strategies and advice captured here are intended to amplify the impact and effectiveness of digital advocacy efforts. This tip sheet can be read alongside our 

Media and Social Media Advocacy Tip Sheet

International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD)

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