The Harm Reduction International Conference has come to an end: what happens next?

Thirty-five years since the first International Harm Reduction Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in April 2025 we as a global collective of front-line health workers, academics, advocates, policy-makers, politicians, UN representatives, people who use drugs, sex workers and people working in the criminal legal justice system, gathered in Bogota, Colombia to build momentum towards a more just, fair and rights-based drug policy architecture that protects lives and restores dignity for all. Over four days, we platformed thought leaders, amplified advocacy for change and shone a light on local innovations in harm reduction.

This year’s conference theme ‘Sowing Change to Harvest Justice’ draws inspiration from Colombia’s efforts to reform drug policy and from the region’s shift towards addressing drug-related issues through public health, social justice, and environmental sustainability. HR25 spotlighted the ways in which prohibitionist drug policies drive and are derived from racism, patriarchy and colonial control, whilst elevating Global South leadership and the decolonization of drug policy.

Colombia’s courage in speaking out against a drug policy system that engenders violence and harm has created a fracture in the once seemingly intractable prohibitionist agenda. This, along with its efforts coordinating a coalition of member states and civil society organizations that are pushing for a review of the international drug control regime, has created the conditions for change. On 14th March 2025, Colombia and its allies secured the adoption of an unprecedented resolution at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), initiating the first ever independent external review of the international drug control system. The Independent Expert Panel is tasked with developing a set of recommendations to enhance treaty implementation and international obligations of relevance for drug policy. 

Delegates of HR25, and as part of a global community of harm reduction and drug policy reform advocates and practitioners and of communities most impacted by punitive drug policies:

• We recognize this independent review as an historic opportunity to critically assess the impact of current drug policies, that have included devastation and destruction, on people, communities and ecology. Such an opportunity cannot be wasted or left to wither away.
• The strong calls from the international community to actively listen to the Colombian experience with the war on drugs, need to be matched with clear commitments and funding for reform opportunities. We request that the Colombian government, in reaffirming its leadership, provide funding for the setup, establishment, and operation of the Independent Expert Panel. We strongly urge other member states to co-sponsor the Panel, which must be fully funded to succeed in its mandate.
• We stress the importance of ensuring that the Independent Expert Panel is diverse, transparent, interdisciplinary and technically robust, and that it centres the voices and experiences of the most affected communities, serving as a turning point for global drug policy transformation.
• We affirm our commitment, as communities, civil society, academics and researchers, to work productively with the Panel, as well as with member states and other relevant actors, to ensure that the review process is meaningful, transparent, substantive and powerful.
• We reaffirm our commitment to fight for a rights- and evidence-based drug policy framework that is fair, equitable and just; for a system that empowers people whose lives include drugs and facilitates innovative harm reduction approaches that are people-centered, respect autonomy, are fit-for-purpose and free from morally driven prejudice and discrimination.

On behalf of HR25, we thank Colombia for its unwavering courage, its commitment to drug policy reform, and for hosting HR25. Let HR25 be a pivotal chapter where words are translated into action, and where we, all together, make the most of this historical, once in a lifetime opportunity to change the course of drug policy: from prohibition to liberation, from enacting harm to restoring justice, from generating destruction to empowerment and community-building.