To mark World Aids Day, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, attended a football match at the Jesus and Mary College Soccer Ground in New Delhi today with teams comprised of drug users and people living with HIV.

UNODC, and its partners in UNAIDS, are currently campaigning for HIV to be confronted by 'closing the gaps' in testing, treatment and prevention, as well as to end AIDS by 2030. There are 35 million people living with HIV globally; many of these individuals confront stigma and discrimination on a daily basis.

India is a high priority country for UNODC. There are thought to be around 180,000 people who inject drugs in India. The HIV prevalence among people injecting drugs is estimated at 9.2 per cent.

Mr. Fedotov is in India as part of a mission to South Asia, which takes in visits to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. He held separate talks, before the community football match, with India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Vinod Kumar, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs. The UNODC Chief also paid a visit to UNODC staff in their office in India's capital.

In comments made at the end of his meeting at the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Fedotov said, "India is an important partner at the regional and international levels and has an essential role in confronting drug trafficking in South Asia and beyond. I very much look forward to closer cooperation and coordination between UNODC and India in the future."

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India mission underscores support for communities of drug users and those living with HIV

据费多托夫先生所说，法律和政策需要进行审查以确保吸毒者和囚犯能够获得必要的服务，包括伤害减少。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

随时掌握与药物政策发展相关的最新信息。

Millions of people suffering from HIV have for decades seen their needs ignored. Life-saving prevention and treatment that should reach everyone is often non-existent, arbitrary, or dependent on geography, gender, age or background.

"Closing the gap" is the theme of this year's World AIDS Day and it focuses on reducing the disparities in service provision that create these powerful inequities.

The UNAIDS campaign calls on everyone to empower and enable people everywhere to receive the evidence-based prevention and treatment they need. This means a level playing field for everyone by closing the testing, treatment and prevention access gaps.

UNODC assists people who use drugs, and people in prisons. Countries can help stem the epidemic among these populations, and by doing so, lend their support to the global target of ending AIDS by 2030.

But these gaps cannot be overcome without confronting the stigma, discrimination, and human rights breaches. No one facing HIV should be left behind or ignored. Laws and policies need to be reviewed to ensure drug users and prisoners have access to the necessary services, including harm reduction.

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

禁毒办执行主任尤里·费多托夫在世界艾滋病日的声明

这些由执法和艾滋病网络（LEAHN）完成的采访显示了警方如何在全球应对艾滋病方面做出积极的贡献。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

In October 2014, a consultation on police and HIV took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The following interviews are with some of the country focal points of the Law Enforcement and HIV Network (LEAHN), each of whom is a serving or a retired senior police officer, and each of whom is committed to ensuring that the police make a positive contribution in their countries and the global HIV response.

The Consultation on Police and HIV was co-convened by LEAHN – Law Enforcement and HIV Network, IDLO – International Development Law Organization and Birkbeck, University of London.

The meeting produced the 'Amsterdam Declaration on Police Partnerships for Harm Reduction' which can be downloaded from LEAHN‘s website leahn.org .

Video produced by georgetownmedia.de for CLEPH – Centre For Law Enforcement & Public Health

HIV和危害减少：治安重点人群

危害减少项目被证实有效地减少了艾滋病的传播，同时为毒品使用者和那些接近他们的人提供了社会支持。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

On December 1st we are delighted to share with you a short film calling for increased funding for harm reduction. Almost 13 million of people around the world inject drugs. And outside of sub-Saharan Africa they accounts for estimated 30% of new HIV infections. Harm reduction programmes have proven efficient in reducing HIV spread, as well as providing social support to people who use drugs and those close to them. Harm reduction restores families. Harm reduction rebuilds communities. Harm reduction saves lives. Harm reduction works. Harm reduction needs funding!

危害减少需要资金

这封信提出了对于新的全球基金将分配给主要受影响人群所造成影响的关切。英语版本拥有更多信息，请阅读下文。

This open letter to the Global Fund Board was drafted in advance of its Thirty-Second Meeting, and signed by 24 civil society organisations from around the world. The letter details grave concerns regarding the impact of the funding allocation methodology applied to middle-income countries (MICs) or those transitioning to middle-income status, and the ultimate consequences this will have on key affected populations.

 民间社会组织在其第三十二次会议前向全球基金董事会提交公开信

In Europe, decades of investment in effective HIV prevention measures targeting people who inject drugs continue to bear fruit as demonstrated by the long-term decline in HIV diagnoses related to drug injecting. Over the past ten years, the rate of newly reported HIV diagnoses attributed to injecting drug use in the EU, Turkey and Norway has more than halved from 52 per million population in 2004 (2644 cases) to 25 in 2013 (1458 cases) (see figure below, data source: ECDC, 2014).

Uneven investment in HIV prevention makes Europe vulnerable

The trend can quickly change, however, as it did when HIV spread rapidly among injecting drug users in Greece and Romania in 2011 and 2012. In the absence of effective measures to curb these epidemics, the explosive spread of infections among injecting drug users in the capital cities resulted in these two countries accounting for more than one third of all new HIV diagnoses associated with injecting drug use notified in the whole of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) in 2012, whereas in 2010 they had represented only 2% of the total.

Gaps in HIV prevention expose Europe to risk of outbreaks

The Home Office has launched the Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme on December 1st, with thirty-five forces going live immediately.

The voluntary scheme, which was announced by the Home Secretary in April, is part of a range of measures that will contribute to a reduction in the overall use of stop and search, lead to better and more intelligence-led stop and searches and more effective outcomes.

The thirty-five forces going live today have implemented all aspects of the scheme to:

increase transparency by recording all outcomes of stop and search and whether there is a connection between the grounds for the search and the outcome;

restrict the use of Section 60 “no suspicion” powers;

give members of the public the opportunity to observe stop and search in practice; and

introduce a community complaints trigger – ensuring that complaints are properly monitored and scrutinised.

Thirty-five police forces across England and Wales will fully implement the stop and search scheme from today

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Statement of the UNODC Executive Director, Yury Fedotov, on World AIDS Day

The destabilising effect of drug and weapon trafficking flows in West Africa and its impact on development and security are extremely serious. These transnational crimes hinder economic growth, reduce investment and efforts for peace, notably in the Sahel region. Underlying these problems, corruption is often seen as a facilitating factor which has evolved into a very sophisticated phenomenon. In this context, journalists can play a critical role in preventing and reducing corruption and, in particular, showing how it affects the daily lives of ordinary citizens.

Given the devastating effects of corruption and organised crime on human development and security in the Sahel, UNODC organised a four-day workshop for journalists from the region, in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA), the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The workshop, held from 24 to 27 November 2014 in Saly, Senegal, allowed for well-known investigative journalists and less experienced journalists from 14 countries in West Africa to share knowledge and expertise in investigative techniques to expose corruption and organised crime. "By putting our knowledge together and communicating regularly among each other, we will be better informed and more efficient in our day-to-day work" said Mr. Samuel De Jaegere, UNODC's Anti-Corruption Advisor for West and Central Africa. Several journalists from Latin-America and Europe, all from countries on the "cocaine route" also took part in the meeting and shared their experiences.

Investigative journalism in the Sahel: A critical role in tackling corruption and organised crime

After facing heavy criticism for the conditions inside its drug-rehabilitation centres, the Ministry of Health has said it will begin offering an alternative community-based approach at health centres nationwide by 2015.

Multiple reports have condemned torture and other abuses in the Kingdom’s eight rehabilitation centres, with the latest from Human Rights Watch in 2013 slamming them as “a means to lock away drug users and those suspected of drug use with considerably less effort and costs than would be incurred by prosecuting people in the justice system and … in prisons.”

According to Chhum Vanarith, a secretary of state in the Health Ministry, the alternative approach has already been piloted at 21 health centres in the capital and Banteay Meanchey.

“People always criticise that the treatment in the [rehabilitation] centres is breaking human rights and involves illegal detention, so we plan to provide services directly to health centres in each community,” he said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday.

Ministry officials said that needle exchanges will also be included in the project.

'Alternative' approach for people who use drugs in Cambodia

Today on World AIDS Day 2014 we ask you to join us and speak out in solidarity with people living with and affected by HIV.

We have come such a long way—today new HIV infections are declining, better and simpler treatment is now available and people living with HIV are now living longer and healthier lives.

But significant challenges remain and we need to fast-track change.

We must close the gap between people who have access to HIV prevention and treatment and people who do not. We must close the gap between people with opportunities and people who are being left behind.

But gender inequalities, violations of human rights and even our own attitudes can leave people behind. People most affected by HIV often don’t have access to the HIV services they need. Stigma and discrimination drive people underground and away from lifesaving HIV prevention and treatment.

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