
While research has demonstrated associations between experiencing violence from intimate and non-intimate partners and non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs, existing studies focus predominantly on the Global North and are analytically limited. Guided by syndemics theory, this study examined whether different forms of gender-based violence exert independent and interactive effects on non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs in Indonesia.


We recruited 731 cisgender adult women who injected drugs in the preceding year via respondent-driven sampling. We used multivariate logistic regressions to examine associations between self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV), police sexual violence, and police extortion, and non-fatal drug overdose, with covariance adjustment for factors drawn from the risk environment. We tested for interaction effects among violence measures by calculating metrics for attributable proportion (AP), relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), and synergy index (S).


Experiencing IPV (AOR 2.5; 95 % CI 1.2, 5.1; p = 0.012), police extortion (AOR 2.2; 95 % CI 1.5, 3.2; p ≤ 0.001), and police sexual violence (AOR 3.7; 95 % CI 1.5, 9.4; p = 0.005) each independently predicted non-fatal overdose, after adjusting for potential confounders. A significant positive interaction was detected between IPV and police sexual violence on drug overdose (AP=0.6, p = 0.001; S = 3.8, p = 0.015) such that the joint effect of these two forms of violence was associated with a nearly fourfold increase in non-fatal overdose risk compared to the main effects of each violence exposure.


This is the first study to show that concurrent IPV and police sexual violence exert an amplifying effect on non-fatal overdose beyond the additive effects of each exposure. Supporting the value of gender-responsive harm reduction services that integrate violence and overdose responses, results suggest that eliminating one form of violence when multiple forms of GBV are present could magnify the expected reduction in overdose.

Synergistic effects of exposure to multiple types of violence on non-fatal drug overdose among women who inject drugs in Indonesia

The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are jointly holding the Philippine Drug Policy and Law Reform Summit from 10 to 12 July 2024.

Recognising the complexity of the issue, the summit adopts a multidisciplinary approach by bringing together various stakeholders including civil society organisations, national government agencies, local government units, policymakers, academia, and health professionals. Nationwide dialogues with various sectors are envisioned to produce a roadmap better aligning drug policies and human rights.

For further coordination on the arrangements for the Summit, your office may contact Ms. Maria Kristina Uson at maria.uson@un.org

Philippine drug policy and law reform summit

Current policies and measures in Thailand 

 and are further aggravating the risks and potential harms faced by the LGBTQI+ community, which results in negative experiences and grave health outcomes. There are some positive developments such as proposed anti-discrimination bills for legislative reforms that provide opportunities to support and protect, instead of punishing, members of the LGBTQI+ community. A landmark bill on legalising same-sex marriage passed the final reading in June 2024, making Thailand the first Southeast Asian country to do so. This is significant progress in uprooting systemic discrimination and paving the way for genuine acceptance of the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals. 

Since 2022, APCOM and IDPC have held consultations with civil society organisations working with communities of LGBTQI+ people and people who use drugs in Thailand to discuss their needs and the challenges they face in relation to drugs. The key findings and conclusions of these consultations are presented in this Advocacy Note, including a set of recommendations to four major stakeholder groups: government policymakers, law enforcement, health service providers, and communities of LGBTQI+ people who use drugs.

LGBTQI+ people who use drugs in Thailand: Advocacy for improved health and human rights responses

Each year, RightsCon convenes business leaders, policy makers, general counsels, government representatives, technologists, academics, journalists, and human rights advocates from around the world to tackle pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. In engaging fireside chats, hands-on workshops, strategic roundtables, private meetings, and a lively exhibition space, RightsCon is where a global movement comes together to build strategies and drive forward change toward a more free, open, and connected digital world.

Over the past 12 years, RightsCon has rotated to key hubs around the world, including San José, Tunis, Toronto, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, Manila, and San Francisco, and grown, both in size and in scope to meet the evolving needs of a movement.

For its 13th edition, we’re excited to host RightsCon 2025 in Taipei and online from February 24 to 27. As a leading democracy in the region, Taiwan is recognized globally for the freest online environment and greatest human freedom in Asia, a whole-of-society approach to human rights, and a vibrant civil society community. As the routine location of large-scale international events, coupled with the rapidly growing presence of international NGOs and global tech companies, we look forward to hosting our first summit in East Asia in Taipei and returning to the Asia Pacific region after a decade.

RightsCon 2025: Taipei

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin may mean well in attempting to re-list cannabis as a narcotic, but his aim only attests to his mediocre knowledge about the plant and the dilemma facing the country. 

Cannabis was decriminalised in 2022 by the Prayut Chan-o-cha administration. The liberalisation of the plant was the flagship election policy of Bhumjaithai, a coalition party, ahead of the 2019 polls.

Thailand has come far regarding its cannabis policy, and there is no point in reversing it. Mr Srettha should keep the right focus and, instead of over-reacting, recognise the main problem of cannabis in this country: its unregulated usage.


Mr Srettha should keep his promise of listening to all sides, and not rush to recriminalise the plant, but instead support laws that will control its usage.


Thailand: Control weed, don't kill it

MANILA - Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on April 15 he would not hand his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating his deadly drug war.

Thousands of people have been killed in an anti-narcotics campaign started by former president Duterte in 2016 and continued under Mr Marcos.

Asked on April 15 if he would hand Mr Duterte – who has accused him of being a drug addict and criticised his policies – to the ICC if it issued a warrant for his arrest, Mr Marcos said no.

“We don’t recognise the warrant that they will send to us. That’s a no,” he said at a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

“We are well within international law when we take the position of not recognising the jurisdiction of the ICC in the Philippines,” Mr Marcos said.

Mr Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019 after the Hague-based tribunal started probing allegations of human rights abuses committed during his drug war.

The ICC launched a formal inquiry into Mr Duterte’s crackdown in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.

Philippines: Marcos says he will not hand Duterte to ICC over drug war

Permission for the use of the two Category 5 drugs was announced in a directive of the ministry that was published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday.

The directive, which was signed by Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew, took effect on Wednesday.

The directive referred to opium and psilocybin mushrooms, better known as magic mushrooms for their hallucinogenic effects when eaten, as narcotics on the Category 5 list, which are not extracts of marijuana and hemp.

Thailand allows use of opium, magic mushrooms for medical purposes, research

We are greatly concerned by the news that the Government of Singapore has issued at least four execution notices since 12 April 2024, all cases in relation to drug offending. Transformative Justice Collective, a member of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, reports that in two of these four cases, the execution was stayed at the last minute. This leaves two people on death row at imminent risk of execution. The mental anguish persons on death row and their families experience in circumstances where execution warrants are issued is unimaginable.

Of particular concern is that it appears that all of these individuals have had execution warrants issued whilst being party to a pending Court application. The lack of transparency in relation to the use of the death penalty in Singapore, also means that it is unclear what procedural steps took place which led to the execution warrants being issued, and continuing to be issued, whilst a Court proceeding is on foot.

Safeguard no.8 of the UN Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, adopted by two UN bodies in 1984 without a vote, states that "[c]apital punishment shall not be carried out pending any appeal or other recourse procedure or other proceeding relating to pardon or commutation of the sentence". In the narrow circumstances in which the death penalty may be imposed under international law - which do not include drug trafficking - the criminal justice system should allow a robust testing of the individuals’ right of review up and until, the gallows.

If the reports that Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) have sought to expedite the hearings of the Court application on foot are correct, the decision-making process behind AGC’s position ought to be transparent, given the seriousness of the nature of these proceedings. Expediting cases through the judicial process undermines the ability to properly prepare and run a case, especially when the penalty is death. We therefore appeal to the AGC to ensure that the fair trial rights of all persons on death row are upheld.

In December 2022, 125 countries voted for a resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty at the United Nations General Assembly. We reiterate that the notion of national sovereignty cannot be used to undermine or negate the State’s obligation to protect the right to life. Death sentences that violate international fair trial standards are a violation of the right to life. Despite international law clearly restricting the death penalty to the ‘most serious crimes’ understood as intentional killing, Singapore remains one of only a handful of countries that continue to execute individuals for drug offences. We join the call of the Transformative Justice Collective that the State of Singapore must halt these executions and declare a moratorium on its use of capital punishment as first steps.

Singapore: execution warrants issued despite pending legal proceedings

As early as November 2022, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has voiced his support in crafting a new policy direction in the government's fight against illegal drugs.

This was disclosed by DOJ Undersecretary Jesse Jerogenes Andres in his keynote speech yesterday at the launch of the Philippine Drug Policy and Law Reform Summit held at the Malcolm Hall of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He said the government is poised to enact meaningful laws that is aligned with the shared vision for a better future.

Andres said this guarantee is contained in the fundamental law of the land particularly the constitutional bill of rights, thus all aspects of governance should express the primacy of human rights.

At present, Andres said that the convening of the Philippine drug policy summit it is also a pivotal moment of history and should stand to catalyze a new era of collaboration, innovation, and progress to build a safer, healthier and more humane society.

The summit will deal more with dialogue with stakeholders that transcends boundaries and to foster a supportive and conducive environment and the key is to listen and understand.

Also, the commitment of every person in the summit will be harnessed towards the power of collective wisdom, collective action, and responsibility in order to forge solutions that have far reaching impact and yet sustainable.

Philippines' Department of Justice mulls support in crafting new drug policy

Monday April 15, 9:00pm ET | Tuesday April 16, 9:00am PHT

As Mayor of Davao City and then President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte orchestrated a campaign of widespread extrajudicial killings in the Philippine drug war. Now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court, the Duterte drug war according to the government has claimed more than 6,000 lives, while NGOs believe the true number is upwards of 30,000. Since late during the Duterte presidency and continuing under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., drug war killings reported by media outlets in the Philippines have continued at a rate of about one per day.

Adding to the the suffering of victims/survivors, burial plots rented by the government have expiration dates, leading to cremations when families can't pay or sometimes without their knowledge. In addition to the indignity, this is also a potential evidentiary issue for the ICC. The AJ Kalinga Foundation's Program Paghilom helps families make arrangements for their loved ones' remains, with ritual to provide closure, and conducts forensic examinations, as part of a support framework that includes education, legal support and other basic needs.

International Center for Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma

, Founder and Executive Director, Rock Ed Philippines and head of its 

Fr. Flaviano Villanueva SVD is a leading human rights advocate in the Philippines. He will discuss the work of Program Paghilom, including its efforts to document and memorialize extrajudicial killings in the Duterte drug war while helping victims/survivors move forward with their lives.

Dr. Yael Danieli, a clinical psychologist, psychohistorian, victimologist and traumatologist, will discuss the challenges faced by victims/survivors of atrocities, the role of victims in relation to cases at the International Criminal Court, and the concept of reparative justice in international law. She will also discuss the impact that trauma from mass atrocities has on future generations, a phenomenon recognized by the ICC for the first time in the Uganda Dominic Ongwen prosecution.

Gang Badoy Capati is the founder of Rock Ed Philippines and Project: Steady Asia, and is a trauma therapist and trained media literacy instructor with a background in media, documentary filmmaking, education and publishing. She will discuss victims' trauma in the context of events and conditions in The Philippines.

Victims move forward from the Philippine drug war

This paper traces the roots of the barriers faced by womxn who use drugs to the international drug control system and subsequent national drug policies. It outlines international standards on public health and human rights that provide guidance on the reforms governments must urgently pursue. To elaborate on the needed reforms, the paper also presents country-specific recommendations from civil society organizations to governments in Southeast Asia.

Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges: Navigating justice for womxn who use drugs in Southeast Asia

Tides are turning against those who instigated the war on drugs under the previous administration. Despite President Marcos’ pronouncement that he will “not lift a finger” to assist the International Criminal Court in its probe on former president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity, recent events have pointed to growing apprehension in the Duterte camp. The ongoing rift between the Dutertes and Marcoses further creates a fragile situation that will keep the drug war instigators constantly on their toes.

Undoubtedly, the arrest of Duterte and his ilk would be a big step toward justice for the drug war victims and their aggrieved families. But beyond Duterte’s arrest, there are critical issues fundamental to moving past the war on drugs. First, we must have a thorough accounting of the harm caused by this war; second, a progressive drug policy alternative must be laid out, and finally, we need to change the narrative toward a more humane approach to substance abuse.

Any effort for reform must start with a clear and honest assessment of what happened previously. The death toll is a common way to start. The number of deaths alone is enough to trigger outrage, although as the corpses piled up, the staggering numbers slowly lost their shock value. Near the end of Duterte’s term, only the organization Dahas continues to keep tabs on the death toll. Sadder still is the fact that the killings are just a sliver of the harm done. Children have to bear the trauma of seeing their fathers shot. Distrust prevails in barangays where neighbors and local officials listed “drug suspects” in their own community. Professional groups who were expected to push for an evidence-informed health policy fell silent, with some subscribing to the hegemony on substance use.

East and South East Asia