General News Archives - Drug Policy Network SEE

A chapter on drugs in the PrEUgovor Alarm Report

Posted on 23/05/2023 by Milutin

The Coalition prEUgovor, consisting of seven civil society organizations from Serbia with expertise in various policies under chapters 23 and 24 of the European Union accession negotiations, held a conference on 22 May 2023 to celebrate 10 years of their work. Mission of the prEUgovor is to oversee the implementation of policies in the field of judiciary and fundamental rights (Chapter 23) and Justice, freedom and security (Chapter 24) and propose measures to improve the reforms, using the process of EU integration to achieve substantial progress in the further democratization of Serbia.

PrEUgovor published their jubilee 20th Alarm Report. For the first time, it includes section on drugs. This chapter was prepared by DPNSEE Executive Director Milutin Milošević.

To Alarm Report is available in English following this link>>> and in Serbian following this link>>>.

EU – Western Balkans Dialogue on Drugs

Posted on 19/05/202323/05/2023 by Milutin

The Dialogue between the European Union and the countries of the Western Balkans on drugs will be held on 25 May 2023 in Brussels. The European side is coordinated by the Swedish Presidency of the European Union. Representatives of the national drug agencies of the EU countries who cooperate within the Horizontal Drug Group (HDG), the body of the Council of the European Union responsible for leading and managing the work of the Council and the European Union on policy, will participate. The embassies of the countries of the Western Balkans to the European Union are invited to the Dialogue.

The Civil Society Forum on Drugs of the European Union (CSFD), an expert group at the European Commission consisting of 45 civil society organizations from all over Europe, representing a variety of fields of drug policy, and a variety of stances within those fields, prepared the document with information, views and recommendations of civil society. Several civil society organizations from the region participated in its preparation. DPNSEE, as a CSFD member organization, coordinated the collection of their contributions. The document has been sent to the Swedish EU Presidency and will be distributed to HDG members and embassies.

The CSFD document is available following this link>>>.

We hope that it will have an impact and contribute to better and coordinated partnerships and support to the region.

Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law

Posted on 09/03/202310/03/2023 by Milutin

From the UNAIDS news

The International Committee of Jurists (ICJ) along with UNAIDS and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) officially launched a new set of expert jurist legal principles to guide the application of international human rights law to criminal law.

The ‘8 March principles’ as they are called lay out a human rights-based approach to laws criminalising conduct in relation to sex, drug use, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, homelessness and poverty.

The principles are the outcome of a 2018 workshop organized by UNAIDS and OHCHR along with the ICJ to discuss the role of jurists in addressing the harmful human rights impact of criminal laws. The meeting resulted in a call for a set of jurists’ principles to assist the courts, legislatures, advocates and prosecutors to address the detrimental human rights impact of such laws.

The principles, developed over five years, are based on feedback and reviews from a range of experts and stakeholders. They were finalized in 2022. Initially, the principles focused on the impact of criminal laws proscribing sexual and reproductive health and rights, consensual sexual activity, gender identity, gender expression, HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission, drug use and the possession of drugs for personal use. Later, based on the inputs of civil society and other stakeholders, criminalization linked to homelessness and poverty were also included.

Continued overuse of criminal law by governments and in some cases arbitrary and discriminatory criminal laws have led to a number of human rights violations. They also perpetuate stigma, harmful gender stereotypes and discrimination based on such grounds as gender or sexual orientation.

In 2023, twenty countries criminalize or otherwise prosecute transgender people, 67 countries still criminalize same-sex sexual activity, 115 report criminalizing drug use, more than 130 criminalize HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission and over 150 countries criminalize some aspect of sex work.

In the world of HIV, the abuse and misuse of criminal laws not only affects the right to health, but a multitude of rights including: to be free from discrimination, to housing, security of the person, movement, family, privacy and bodily autonomy, and in extreme cases the very right to life. In countries where sex work is criminalized, for example, sex workers are seven times more likely to be living with HIV than where it is partially legalized. To be criminalized can also mean being deprived of the protection of the law and law enforcement. And yet, criminalized communities, particularly women, are often more likely to need the very protection they are denied.

The Principles are available following this link>>>.

‘Right to asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2022’ report presented

Posted on 01/03/202323/03/2023 by Milutin

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) presented its annual report Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia 2022 at a press conference in the Belgrade Media Centre on 28 February. The report was presented by UNHCR Representative in Serbia Soufiane Adjali, BCHR Executive Director Sonja Tošković, BCHR Asylum and Migration Programme Coordinator Anja Stefanović, Report Editor Ana Trifunović and BCHR Asylum and Migration Programme Senior Integration Adviser Jelena Ilić.

According to the data of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, over 119,000 refugees and asylum seekers stayed in the Serbian asylum and reception centres in 2022, or twice as many as in 2021, said the Report Editor, Ana Trifunović.

Serbia issued 1,115 rulings granting temporary protection mostly to Ukrainian nationals, in accordance with the temporary protection mechanism activated after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Trifunović.

“The arrival of Ukrainian nationals in Serbia was facilitated by the visa-free regime and they applied for temporary protection on arrival. In BCHR’s experience, the application of the temporary protection mechanism was relatively smooth. The people who fled Ukraine mostly stayed in private lodgings and many of them have friends and relatives, even spouses, here. The Serbian Government designated the Vranje Asylum Centre for the accommodation of exclusively Ukrainian refugees,” Asylum and Migration Programme Coordinator Anja Stefanović said, adding that most Ukrainian refugees wanted to return to their country as soon as circumstances permitted.

Jelena Ilić, a Senior Integration Adviser with BCHR’s Asylum and Migration Programme, said that 230 refugees in 2022 asked BCHR to help them pursue their education or access the labour market in Serbia.

She said that BCHR in 2022 represented 94 Ukrainian clients, as well as clients from Burundi, Iran and Libya, in procedures for accessing their economic and social rights.

“Only 23% of the foreigners between 20 and 56 years of age who asked us to help them access their right to work or education spoke Serbian. Four BCHR’s clients have enrolled in Serbian colleges since 2021,” said Ilić.

The report is available in Serbian and English.

Visit to the Duga Checkpoint centre

Posted on 22/02/202330/05/2023 by Milutin

Representatives of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Ms Fariba Soltani, Chief, HIV/AIDS Section and Global Coordinator for HIV/AIDS, Ms. Gorica Popović, Specialist, Law Enforcement and HIV and Ms Žana Glavendekić, the Regional Project Officer for Drug Demand Reduction visited the Duga Checkpoint centre in Belgrade and met with community-led organizations working on HIV and harm reduction services for key populations.

It was an opportunity to share about services which Prevent, TOC, Duga and ReGeneration provide and to discuss operational issues related to implementation of the UNODC-led project “Emergency support for the provision of HIV and Harm Reduction services among key populations in Ukraine and refugees in selected neighbouring countries”.

The BOOST project launch

Posted on 15/02/202324/02/2023 by Milutin

DPNSEE President Nebojša Djurasović and Executive Director Milutin Milošević participated at the first meeting of the BOOST Project in Rome 13 – 14 of February. 45 participants from more than 20 organisations joined in the Fondazione Villa Maraini in Rome.

The main aim of the BOOST project is to enhance the implementation of high-quality community-based & community-led communicable disease services as part of a comprehensive, people-centred and integrated harm reduction approach. To ahieve its goal, over the next three years, together with our partners we will focus on four key areas:

INFORM – providing a collection of up-to-date information and data on current practice and quality of community-based and community-led services.
IMPROVE – supporting the organisation of capacity building activities in the field of communicable diseases, indluding the use of digital tools.
SUPPORT – enhancing the scale-up of integrated community-based good practices building up existing models of good practice.
CONNECT & ACT – strenghtening and consolidating existing civil society networks and fostering advocacy interventions for the improved implementation comunity-based and community-led good practices oriented towards the needs of people who use drugs at European, national and local levels.

BOOST Project is founded by the EU4Health programme of the European Union, under the Action Grants to support the implementation of best practices in community-based services for HIV, AIDS, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections. Partners include the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, EuroNPUD, Free Clinic, Podane Ruce, LILA Milano, Asociacion Bienestar y Desarrolo, IGTP/ICO, ISGlobal, Foundazinone Villa Maraini. Supporting the projects work, the project with count with Scientific Advisory Board and the collaboration of organizations such as DPNSEE, ReGeneration, ARAS Foundation, AIDS Action Europe, among others.

Time for a new European approach on drug policy say people who use drugs

Posted on 09/02/202324/02/2023 by Milutin

The EU DG Home Commissioner Ylva Johansson and her Belgian colleague Annelies Verlinden issued a statement regarding organised drug crime as threatening as terrorism, in which they emphasized a conservative and stigmatising approach to drug use. Their stament is quoted in the news here>>>.

The European Network of People who Use Drugs issued the following statement:

EuroNPUD was shocked to see the outdated and off-policy statements of EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson and Annelies Verlinden Belgium’s Minister for the Interior during a visit to Antwerp Docks holding people who use drugs responsible for violence committed by organised crime. It is extremely unfortunate that EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johanson is not only using such outdated and stigmatizing language but also promoting the outdated vision of a drug free world.

It is deeply concerning to hear such closed thinking from European leaders when across Europe we are seeing an increasingly pragmatic and reflective approach to drug policy reform, including initiatives on medicinal cannabis, the legal regulation of cannabis for adult use, psychedelic drugs and healing, and enhanced harm reduction such as drug consumption rooms, drug checking and heroin assisted treatment.

Commissioner Johansson’s statement are also contrary to the EU’s very own Drug Strategy 2021-2025, which calls for EU action to reduce stigma against people who use drugs, and promotes increased and balanced investment in a broad range of demand and harm reduction services, discarding old-fashioned emphasis on prevention.

All UN agencies signed up to the UN Common Position on Drugs, which “reiterates the strong commitment of the United Nations system to supporting Member States in developing and implementing truly balanced, comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based, human rights-based, development-oriented and sustainable responses to the world drug problem.” The Common Position supports the adoption of decriminalisation to create an enabling legal environment for harm reduction and drug treatment. “Importantly, some countries have decriminalized various forms of drug use, aiming to ensure treatment and services without any fear and intimidation and to remove stigma.” (Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).

Legal regulation is being successfully implemented in different settings with cannabis, and is considered by many experts as the most appropriate response to reduce the violence associated to illegal economies such as drug trafficking. Decriminalisation remains the major call for drug law reform as a sensible chance to end the human rights violations and racial injustice that are central to drug control and create the space for dialogue and change. EuroNPUD calls for the legal regulated control of all mind-altering substances and we understand this journey will take place incrementally.

Calling for a focus “prevention and addiction free society” is populist propaganda. Blaming those criminalised by drug control for the failings of prohibition is laughable given our current understanding of the poisoned roots of drug control. We now understand from US President Nixon’s advisor, John Ehrlichman, that drug control was introduced as an intentional tool of social control and racial injustice. It was readily adopted in Europe as it resonated with the continent’s imperial history.

When drug policy remains an area of such evolving and developing policy and practice, it is extremely worrying to hear key European leaders demonstrating such closed and outdated thinking. This is a time for reflection and change. Europe deserves leaders able to engage in such forward-looking conversations.

Dozens of civil society organisations, including DPNSEE and our member organisations, supported this statement.

Australia to legalise MDMA and magic mushrooms for medical use

Posted on 04/02/202305/02/2023 by Milutin

From The Journal news

Australia’s Drugs Watchdog has today announced that psychedelic substances MDMA and psilocybin – more commonly known as ecstasy and magic mushrooms – will soon be used in the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress.

Psychiatrists will be able to prescribe the two substances from July, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said after finding “sufficient evidence for potential benefits in certain patients”.

The two drugs are currently “prohibited substances” and can only be used in closely controlled clinical trials.

The administration said they had been found to be “relatively safe” when administered in a medical setting and provided an “altered state of consciousness” that could help patients.

To read the full article, follow this link>>>.

CSFD – UNODC cooperation

Posted on 19/01/2023 by Milutin

DPNSEE Executive Director Milutin Milošević, member of the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs Core Group, joined the meeting between the CSFD Working Group 2 and UNODC Brussels Liaison Office. The meeting was scheduled to discuss cooperation on the issues of interest discussed by the European Union related to drugs.

Milutin presented the priorities and work of the Working Group 4 he is chairing. He also pointed the need to advocate for more balanced approach to accession processes for the EU candidate countries, which is currently almost exclusive addressing splly reduction measures.

The two sides agreed in preparing a joint advocacy event in the occassion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 26 June.