The web portal is a tool for activists, community organizations, researchers, policy-makers, journalists, health workers and anyone who seeks quick and easy access to a wide range of resources about HIV, human rights and the law.
The European network Correlation is currently drafting a manual on harm reduction methodologies. Correlation is therefore seeking projects and organisations in Europe and abroad with experience in the field of outreach/early intervention AND/OR peer support for drug users.
WOLA's Senior Associate for Drug Policy, John Walsh, testified at a hearing on "Assessing U.S. Drug Policy in the Americas" at the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
The First Regional Harm Reduction Conference of the Middle East and North Africa region was a great success. The event hosted by Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) took place in Beirut from the 16th to the 18th November 2009.
Harm reduction, human rights and drug user advocacy groups have sent a letter to UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe expressing their strong concern about his speech at the opening plenary of the Eastern European and Central Asian AIDS Conference. Mr Sidibe has responded reaffirming UNAIDS support for comprehensive harm reduction and decriminalisation of people who use drugs.
At a conference on international human rights in Hanoi, Anand Grover, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, called for the decriminalisation of drug use and an end to compulsory drug rehabilitation camps in Asia.
Transform Drug Policy Foundation are to launch their internationally groundbreaking book, ‘After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation’ on 12th November 2009 in London, UK and Albuquerque,New Mexico. The book is also being launched in mainland Europe, South America, Australasia and Asia.
Indonesia has adopted a new narcotics law that once again clearly prioritises a law enforcement approach over public health and human rights considerations. The law has been criticised by HIV/AIDS, harm reduction and rights-focused NGOs for being seriously flawed in its construction and disproportionately severe in its implementation.
The Council calls for action based on the EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009-2012, which sets as a main priority the reduction of the demand for drugs, and the health and social consequences of drug use by improving the coverage, quality and effectiveness of services of prevention, treatment and harm reduction.
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are making the case in Canada for an effective law on access to medicines for patients in the developing world.
Over twenty-five drug users from nine different countries met in Bangkok on 16th and 17th October 2009 to finalize the Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD).
On September 15, the Obama administration submitted the Memorandum of Justification explaining their decision to name Bolivia as a country that "failed demonstrably... to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements" for the second year in a row. Once again the determination presents inaccurate, poorly prepared information, further complicated by confusing language.