WHRIN is a global platform to expand harm reduction approaches for women.

WHRIN es una plataforma global orientada a reducir los daños asociados al consumo de drogas por parte de mujeres, así como a desarrollar un entorno que favorezca la implementación y expansión de recursos orientados a mujeres para la reducción de daños.

WHRIN est une tribune internationale travaillant pour la réduction des risques associés à la prise de drogues par les femmes et cherchant à développer un environnement adapté à la mise en œuvre des politiques de réduction des risques pour les femmes.

Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN)

WHRIN have released this position statement on issues facing women and gender diverse people who use drugs as we mature, to coincide with Zero Discrimination Day March 1, which is a day for people to speak up about discrimination and movement for change. Events and initiatives focus on the rights of people living with HIV, the LGBTQ+ community, people who use drugs and more. Notably, the theme for 2023 is “Save lives: Decriminalise”, a critical reform imperative echoed in this statement. We add our voices to the cry, highlighting the needs of women and gender diverse people who use drugs as we mature.

Drug use as we mature 

This briefing paper was developed through collaboration on an internship between the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW). The purpose of the paper is to promote discussion, learning, consensus-building, and advocacy among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) networks, activists, service providers and other stakeholders to improve rights and health outcomes for women who live with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and who use drugs.

This paper is based on a review of literature as well as a series of community interviews with women who use drugs who are living with HIV in different regions of the world as well as selected other stakeholders who work in the fields of HIV and harm reduction. The experience of women who use drugs and live with HIV along the HIV service continuum and factors that impact their health and rights are explored. The paper seeks to identify the key barriers faced and make recommendations on how to address them for improved health and rights outcomes.

Women who use drugs and who are living with HIV

This eighth edition of the IDPC webinar on the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) focuses on its 

66th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs

 (CND), which will take place in Vienna from 13-17 March 2022.

This year’s session is a momentous one, convened against the backdrop of 

 resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and ongoing preparations for the mid-term review of the 2019 Ministerial declaration.

The webinar will shed light on these and other key issues that are likely to structure the debates, discuss tabled resolutions and opportunities for engagement (especially in light of the session’s hybrid format), and showcase the experience of IDPC network members in navigating and leveraging this forum for political advocacy.

This event will be available in English, Spanish and French.

Maria-Goretti Ane (International Drug Policy Consortium - IDPC)

Adrià Cots Fernández (International Drug Policy Consortium - IDPC)

Ruth Birgin (Women and Harm Reduction International Network - WHRIN)

CND 66: Key issues and opportunities

Coinciding with the United Nations international day to eliminate violence against women, and the subsequent 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign (25 November to 10 December), women who use drugs and their allies around the world, unified in their determination to stop systemic and gender-based violence against women who use drugs, again unleashed a diverse and dynamic series of actions. 

Women who use drugs are exposed to higher rates of violence than women in the general public. This violence includes, (but is not limited to) rape, sexual harassment, extortion, loss of child custody, imprisonment for mere personal possession, extra judicial killing, capital punishment, obstetric violence and penalisation for drug use in pregnancy. Prohibition either directly causes or greatly exacerbates conditions for all of these violations. Gender-based violence cannot be eliminated if those most affected are not directly and meaningfully involved at all levels in relevant policy and programming. 

Women who use drugs are boldly stepping out to take their place in the women’s movement and efforts to stop gender-based violence. Collectively we and our allies call for governments to end the gendered, failed and murderous policy of drug prohibition. 

A growing number of consortia actions and engagement with partners has further amplified engagement in 2022. The following summary (with hyperlinks) features some of the actions performed by women who use drugs and our allies around the world, in Portugal, Uganda, Greece, Ukraine, France, Serbia, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malawi, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova.Coinciding with the United Nations international day to eliminate violence against women, and the subsequent 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign (25 November to 10 December), women who use drugs and their allies around the world, unified in their determination to stop systemic and gender-based violence against women who use drugs, again unleashed a diverse and dynamic series of actions. Women who use drugs are exposed to higher rates of violence than women in the general public. This violence includes, (but is not limited to) rape, sexual harassment, extortion, loss of child custody, imprisonment for mere personal possession, extra judicial killing, capital punishment, obstetric violence and penalisation for drug use in pregnancy. Prohibition either directly causes or greatly exacerbates conditions for all of these violations. Gender-based violence cannot be eliminated if those most affected are not directly and meaningfully involved at all levels in relevant policy and programming. Women who use drugs are boldly stepping out to take their place in the women’s movement and efforts to stop gender-based violence. Collectively we and our allies call for governments to end the gendered, failed and murderous policy of drug prohibition. A growing number of consortia actions and engagement with partners has further amplified engagement in 2022. The following summary (with hyperlinks) features some of the actions performed by women who use drugs and our allies around the world, in Portugal, Uganda, Greece, Ukraine, France, Serbia, Kenya, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Malawi, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova.

EVAWUD22 Summary Report

With the International campaign for the elimination of violence against women 2022, the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (

) and the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (

) call for an end to all forms of violence against women who use drugs.

Women who use drugs, including trans and gender non-conforming people, are subject to extreme levels and a wide range of physical and psychological harm due to punitive prohibition of some substances in the EECA region and globally.State driven stigma, criminalisation and corruption drive substantive health and safety harms and act as barriers between women who use drugs and critical harm reduction and gender-based violence (GBV) services. Women who use drugs 

the rate experienced by other women in the general public. This violence includes, (but is not limited to) forced and coerced sterilisation and abortion, rape, sexual harassment, loss of child custody, imprisonment for mere personal possession or use, and other types of gendered violations, stigma and discrimination.

Women who use drugs around the world can face arbitrary detention, extortion, police violence, torture and ill-treatment, with over a third of women in prison incarcerated for drug offences globally. Due to the war on drugs, women survivors have little recourse and often no support, particularly in cases of violence from intimate partner, police, prison guards and medical staff. The experiences of violence against women who use drugs are even more extreme for those facing intersecting discrimination, such as HIV-positive women, women of colour, sex workers, LBT women or women with disability. These conditions have only worsened during COVID-19 restrictions which have created contexts that have escalated GBV without matching responses for women at risk or being exposed to violence.

EWNA and WHRIN note that by collaborating with groups of women who use drugs, supporting and documenting peer led actions and services, the appropriate responses to these inequities and violations are clear. Meaningful involvement of women who use drugs must feature as the cornerstone to all good practice responses in developing GBV services for women who use drugs.

As the criminalization of drug use and HIV stands as the primary barrier between women who use drugs and attainment of human rights including access to harm reduction, HIV prevention, treatment and care and other essential health services, decriminalisation is also imperative.Expansion of harm reduction and inclusion of violence mitigation and support services are also critical. Sexual and reproductive health is now promoted as an essential service that should be incorporated within the harm reduction suite of services for people who use drugs, and that best practice service delivery integrates  comprehensive GBV services.

EWNA and WHRIN call for an end to the war on drugs to end violence against women

Legislation and legal principles, procedures, policies, programmes and practices relating to criminal justice must be reviewed to determine if they are adequate to prevent and eliminate violence against women who use drugs or if they have a negative impact on women and, if they do, to modify them in order to ensure that women who use drugs enjoy fair and equal treatment.

Please join us in ensuring adequate resources and legislative frameworks to uphold the safety and human rights of women who use drugs.

End violence against women who use drugs: 2022 EVAWUD campaign

Women and gender diverse people who use drugs experiencing violence and/or homelessness, often face very restricted access to shelters. Commonly, women’s shelters apply a “zero tolerance” policy with respect to drug use and to refer people who use drugs to other services (which usually don’t exist, so people remain at risk of violence and unstable housing). Those who desperately need shelter and non-judgmental support are turned away at a time when they are most at risk. Many shelters feel they do not have the staff expertise to serve this population, without examining ways to overcome such concerns.

This workshop aims to provide a space for addressing such barriers to improve capacity for shelters to accommodate women and gender diverse people who use drugs. It is designed to provide information for shelters’ managers, policy makers and staff to:

Raise awareness among management of shelters and other relevant policy makers on the need to lower thresholds to meet the needs of women in all their diversity by accommodating clients who use drugs.

Provide management of shelters with insights and practical tools to lower thresholds to shelter access for clients who use drugs, while policy makers will gain insight on how to adjust policies to support improved access to shelters for those in need.

It is recognised that, in some contexts, supplementary Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) and other related capacity building will be needed to better enable inclusion for two spirited, trans, nonbinary and gender diverse people in shelters. This toolkit touches on key considerations while especially addressing barriers to inclusion for people who use drugs.

Addressing inclusion of women who use drugs in shelters

Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women who use drugs is available here.

In 2020, the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) and Frontline AIDS published the guide Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women who use drugs, which has been translated into Bahasa Indonesia, French and Portuguese. This manual has been designed for workshop facilitators to train community-based and peer-led harm reduction service providers to put this guide into practice. 

To ensure community-based and peer-led organisations have ownership of this manual, a working group of partners from India, Kenya, Nepal and Nigeria contributed to the curriculum’s development at all stages. The headings, sub-topics and learning objectives have been discussed with and validated by members of this working group. Between July and October 2021, fortnightly meetings were held with the working group to ensure the training course is relevant and applicable. Working group members have also contributed to case studies, the design of workshop activities, and the key messages of each module.

Integrating harm reduction and sexual and reproductive health and rights - A facilitator's guide

WHRIN is taking the occasion of August 18, “Never Give Up Day” as apt opportunity to launch theround-up report of support don’t punish with a focus on women, 2022. Never give up day provides acommon platform for health and social care organizations and others to redouble determinationand connection. WHRIN thus celebrates the impactful resilience and determination of our global community with this summary of some of the actions from 13 countries around the world which galvanise attention on the gendered failure of drug prohibition and urgent demands for reform.

2022 Support Don’t Punish with a focus on women

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.

Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN)

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