Tag: harm reduction

Coming soon “Support. Don’t Punish.”

Posted on by Milutin

The harms being caused by the war on drugs can no longer be ignored. It is time to leave behind harmful politics, ideology, and prejudice. It is time to prioritize the health and welfare of the affected populations, their families, and communities.

Support. Don’t Punish is a global advocacy campaign calling for better drug policies that prioritize public health and human rights. The campaign aims to promote drug policy reform and to change laws and policies which impede access to harm reduction interventions.

The Support. Don’t Punish campaign aligns with the following key messages:

The drug control system is broken and in need of reform
People who use drugs should no longer be criminalized
People involved in the drug trade at low levels, especially those involved for reasons of subsistence or coercion, should not face harsh or disproportionate punishments
The death penalty should never be imposed for drug offenses
Drug policy in the next decade should focus on health and harm reduction
By 2020, 10% of global resources expended on drug policies should be invested in public health and harm reduction
To launch the Global Day of Action for the “Support. Don’t Punish” campaign in South East Europe, DPNSEE organizes “Kick-off event”. The event will be held in the EU Info Centre in Belgrade, Kralja Milana 7, on 20 of June 2017 at 13:00.

Representatives of the Network will present the objectives of the campaign “Do not Punish Support” as well as activities within the project “Strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations in South-East Europe and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe ” supported by the European Commission. The network has prepared a Glossary of terms used in areas related to drug policy and related topics that will also be presented.

The representative of the EU Delegation in Serbia Dr Maja Vučkovic – Krčmar will present the latest European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) report on drugs in 2017. Director of the Office for Combating Drug Abuse of the Republic of Serbia Milan Pekić will talk about the work and plans of the Office and reflect on the situation in Serbia.

 

Stay tuned for the announcement of the activities in each SEE country!

Annual Drug Policy Conference

Posted on by Milutin

The Annual Regional Conference in South East Europe was organised in Thessaloniki from 8 to 10 June 2017. The conference aimed to bring together NGOs, policy makers and researchers active in the drugs field in the region of South East Europe, in order to discuss drug policy developments and trends, exchange experiences and best practices in the region, Europe and the United Nations.

The conference is part of the regional project “Strengthening NGO capacity and promoting public health and human rights oriented drug policy in South East Europe”, supported financially by the European Commission and the Open Society Foundations. The organiser was Diogenis, Drug Policy Dialogue.

National drug coordinators from Romania and Croatia

The Conference agenda included a large number of interesting issues:

  • The Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and drug policy. Priority issues, the role of UN agencies, expected commitments from the member states and role of NGOs. Presenter was Jo Dedeyne-Amann, Chief Secretariat to the Governing Bodies, Division for Treaty Affairs, UNODC. Nikos Stergiou, Communication and public relations Officer, Diogenis, presented experience of two local meetings.
  • Initiatives undertaken in the countries of our region related to implementation of the outcomes of the UNGASS and the role of NGOs. National drug coordinators presented work in their countries: drug co-ordinators: Sorin Oprea (Romania), Milan Pekić (Serbia), Željko Petković (Croatia) and Manina Terzidou, head of the Greek Monitoring Centre for Drugs (EKTEPN) (Greece)
  • Women and Drugs. Facts and Special Characteristics for Girls and Women who use drugs was the presentation from Meni Malliori, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Athens, while Georgia Aslanidou, Psychologist, OKANA Thessaloniki presented about Addicted mothers and the journey of therapy
  • Drugs and internet: experiences, opportunities and concerns in the use of online counselling tools presented by Ilias Paraskevopoulos, Consultant for addictions at KETHEA ITHAKI
  • The Harm reduction project in South East Europe. Developments and next steps presented by Sofia Galinaki, Advocacy Officer, Diogenis and Peers’ involvement in harm reduction, with introduction from Christos Anastasiou, Peer Network of Users of Psychoactive Substances (PENUPS).
  • Irena Molnar and Bojan Arsenijević from the NGO Re Generation, Serbia provided valuable insight into Changing culture in drug use including new psychoactive substances
  • Developments in the discussion about cannabis policy in countries of SEE
Irena Molnar presenting about Changing culture in drug use including new psychoactive substances

Representatives from 14 DPNSEE member organisations, 3 Board members and all 5 Staff were at the Conference. We presented the Network, strategic priorities and plans for the future. Our two volunteers talked about their work on the Glossary and Resource Pool.

Marios Atzemis, DPNSEE Board member, making an intervention

The Conference was a very good opportunity to share and learn about interesting ideas and make plans for the future.

Lively and active CSO scene in Macedonia

Posted on by Milutin

Delegation of the Drug Policy Network South East Europe visited Macedonia on 21 to 22 December 2016. It was one of the final visits in the region in this year in an attempt to understand the situation and meet with a variety of stakeholders in drug policy in the country.

The delegation of the Network included Chairperson Tijana Žegura and Executive Director Milutin Milošević. We were accompanied by Thanasis Apostolou, DPNSEE founding Chairman and Director of Diogenis who presented the drug law reform initiatives.

Creative workshop in the HOPS drop-in centre
Creative workshop in the HOPS drop-in centre

DPNSEE member organisation HOPS was host for the visit. This very active and widely involved in social issues organisation presented their work, including the drop-in centre. The staff, both in the office and the drop-in, showed the variety of projects and support services.

The Methadone centre in the Karpoš municipality serves users in modern and fully equipped new premises. We had an informative and very open exchange with Dr Darko Kostovski.

Exchange in the NGO Coalition for health and sexual rights of marginalized community
Exchange in the NGO Coalition for health and sexual rights of marginalized community

Irena Cvetkovik of the NGO Coalition for health and sexual rights of marginalised community informed us about their activities, including their struggle to ensure fair and human treatment of police, especially the special Skopje brigade. The Coalition expressed their will to become DPNSEE member organisation!

Meeting with Dragi Celevski from the Office of the Ombudsman gave a quality insight into the work of this institution which for almost 20 years cares about respecting human rights in the country.

City of Skopje has an array of activities in supporting people affected by drugs which were presented during the meeting with Eleonora Nikolovska, the Coordinator of Office for Health, Social and Child protection.

An exchange with our good and lasting partner Dr Liljana Ignjatova, the National drug coordinator, completed the picture of the efforts taken in the country.

Finally, the delegation had an informative exchange with Hristijan Jankuloski, Chairman and Ana Filipovska, secretary of the Country Coordination Mechanism for Global Fund projects.

Even thought shortages in the proposed budget for 2017 and expected closing of the Global Fund projects are threatening future, we hope that lively and active CSO scene will fin their way in providing support to affected.

What works in budget advocacy?

Posted on by Milutin

The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) organised an interesting workshop on “What works: Budget advocacy for national investments in harm reduction” from 23 – 25 October 2016, in Budapest, Hungary.
The workshop was organized within the EC funded project “Harm reduction works! Improving funding for
harm reduction and HIV prevention in the EU” with co-funding from the Open Society Foundations.

The goal of the workshop was to provide a learning and planning space for national advocacy teams with
representatives of harm reduction NGOs from Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Macedonia,
Montenegro and Serbia for greater domestic investments in harm reduction in their countries.

Objectives of the workshop were:
●To build knowledge on how to influence budgets at national and municipal levels;
●To re-assess the funding situation and the vision of the future budget needs and sources;
●To advance skills on planning advocacy tactics, adapting evidence-based arguments and work with
politicians and media;
●To explore possibilities for advocacy cooperation with other health, human rights and transparency
movements in the country and other related processes;
●To develop advocacy plans with milestones for 2 years and detailed planning for the next 8 months;
●To assess the needs for continuous capacity building and support from political and technical
partners and communication after the meeting.

Harm reduction services and HIV-related community systems strengthening is underfunded from national
budgets in a number of EU member states in Central Europe and their South-East European neighbours that are EU candidate or potential candidate countries. Besides, as a rule, EU member states are not eligible for donor support or development assistance other than provided by the EU itself. South Eastern Europe is being rapidly left by its main remaining donor of harm reduction and other HIV interventions among key populations, the Global Fund, without adequate commitment from local authorities.

In order to strategically influence national and local authorities to secure funding for unmet needs of key
populations, NGOs need to conduct so called budget advocacy, so as to better understand how to influence
budget processes and policies, and increase accountability mechanisms.

9 Drug Policy Network South East Europe member organisations from member 5 countries participated in
the workshop, along with the Executive director of the Network. It was an excellent opportunity to get to
know more about on-going projects and plans for the future, present the Network and get contacts for
possible partnerships.

Policy paper on reduction of drug related harm in Montenegro

Posted on by Milutin
Στιγμιότυπο 2016-07-06, 10.48.16 π.μ.
Publication on harm reduction  “Policy paper on reduction of drug related harm in Montenegro”, one of products of project Harm Reduction works. Fund it in Montenegro!  implemented by Montenegrin Harm Reduction Network Link, with support of NGO Juventas.
Project was implemented within Eurasian Harm Reduction Network Small Programs Grant, with financial support of Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund.