Joint statement on the proposed sunsetting of UNAIDS - Special session of the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB)

At the UNAIDS PCB Special Session on 8 October, during Agenda Item 2 on UNAIDS’ revised operating model and UN80, Aditia Taslim, Advocacy Lead at the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), delivered a joint statement on behalf of INPUD, the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), and Harm Reduction International (HRI).

The statement expressed grave concern over the UN Secretary-General’s recommendation to 'sunset' UNAIDS in 2026, highlighting the agency’s critical role in championing harm reduction, advancing human rights, and ensuring the meaningful involvement of key populations — including people who use drugs — in global health policymaking.

UNAIDS has been instrumental in promoting evidence-based interventions such as Needle and Syringe Programmes (NSP), Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT), and community naloxone distribution, saving countless lives worldwide. Its closure would risk undoing decades of progress and further marginalising communities already left behind.

The joint statement reaffirmed the community’s support for UNAIDS and urged member states not to let political expediency erase historic gains made in the global HIV and harm reduction response.

Thank you, Chair.

I am delivering a joint intervention from the International Network of People who Use Drugs, International Drug Policy Consortium, and Harm Reduction International.

We, the community of people who use drugs, including myself, and the global harm reduction and drug users’ rights movements, are in grave concern about the news regarding the sunsetting of UNAIDS prematurely.

UNAIDS, alongside WHO, was one of the first UN agencies to champion life-saving and cost-effective harm reduction interventions such as Needle and Syringe Programme, Opioid Agonist Therapy, and community-distribution of Naloxone, which have directly saved the lives of many people who use drugs. UNODC also joined our collective advocacy in ensuring access to harm reduction services. Through collaboration between UN entities, organisations, and networks led by people who use drugs, not only were we able to develop strategic goals and directions, but we also achieved the changes we wanted to see. For example, scaling up harm reduction services in prisons and closed settings, as well as expanding them in culturally challenging regions, such as the MENA region.

However, despite the evidence, harm reduction and people who use drugs are among the most left behind, underfunded, and forgotten. However, UNAIDS has consistently elevated the principles of human rights and meaningful involvement in decision-making processes that are affecting the lives of the communities, including criminalised populations such as people who use drugs, and ensuring their leadership at all levels.

When others close the doors on us, UNAIDS opens them. This is the unique role of UNAIDS – because they know that to end AIDS, key populations must be protected. We all know that key populations are not hard to find if you have the right people doing the work.

As mentioned before, even with the support from UNAIDS and other UN cosponsors, harm reduction services continue to be severely underfunded, and the number of preventable deaths due to drug-related overdose continues to rise. Now imagine a world where key populations, including people who use drugs, are not being seen as evil, where stigma and discrimination continue to be unaddressed, and where the doors are locked. We are being erased.

However, many of the member states here are also among the ones that have made history within the global HIV and drug policy spaces, such as passing the first ever targets on decriminalisation of drug use, having the first ever CND resolution that mentions harm reduction for the first time, as well as the review of the current approach on the war on drugs that has been proven to be a failure. Earlier this morning, at the Human Rights Council, we also celebrated the adoption of a resolution on the human rights implications of drug policy – we also thank Member States who have always been on our back to ensure consistent use of human rights principles, explicit exclusion of harm reduction in the texts, the removal of the three international drug treaties that continue to fail, and ensuring that we are recognised as a person/individual who use drugs – not with drug use disorders, acknowledging our right to bodily autonomy.

UNAIDS has become the first door that has provided us with the opportunity to advocate beyond HIV. Closing down UNAIDS prematurely would only take us backwards on some of the historical achievements made across the UN decision-making spaces. We will only be erased, and all the history will remain on paper. HIV is not over; people are still injecting drugs, harm reduction is severely lacking, underfunded and deprioritised by both international and domestic funding sources.

We also support the decisions made by the PCB, and we will support UNAIDS in the next challenging years. Please, do not forget that we would not be here if it were not because of the Denver Principles, GIPA principles, and the Vancouver Principles for people who use drugs. We are here.