General News Archives - Page 10 of 75 - Drug Policy Network SEE

Rome Consensus 2.0 Summit

Posted on 06/05/202317/06/2023 by Milutin

The Summit of the Rome Consensus 2.0 was held on 2 – 5 May 2023 in Villa Maraini, in Rome. It was a strategic meeting between different realities that deal with drug issues along with the large humanitarian family of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, giving a proof that we can work together on the same side for the good of the most vulnerables

The Summit brought together a task force of humanitarian practitioners, activists and experts leading on drug policy, treatment, diversion and deflection from 29 countries. More than 100 experts from all around the world enriched the debate and filled the formal and informal discussion with new ideas and common goals.

The event started with the presentation of the leading role of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in responding to humanitarian emergencies and disasters with its wide network of millions of volunteers in 191 countries. The Partnership Anniversary has been a valuable opportunity to meet among 15 Red Cross/Red Crescent National Societies who have interest in tackling drug problems and collaborated in the last 10 years with the Partnership, and discuss internally and with CSOs how to build connection, exchange of know and how and increase the effectiveness of the RC2.0 statement as a common tool and ground to promote and disseminate humanitarian drug policy side by side, taking in consideration the power of the emblem as an asset to reach the most vulnerable of the society.

The Interior Minister of Italy, Matteo Piantedosi, and the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Giorgio Silli, joined the event and gave supporting words on humanitarian drug policy, awareness and harm reduction as powerful tools to create the opportunity for change from a repressive approach to a health-centered one.

A final declaration was prepared to summarize what has been discussed and committed during the event. It will serve as a common ground to relaunch the initiative in the upcoming months.

Participants were able to experience field visits along with the Villa Maraini Foundation, the historical Italian Red Cross Rehabilitation center founded in 1976 by Massimo Barra, among the first in the world to put in practice humanitarian and evidence-based solutions to drug problems. Participants had the chance to personally experience the therapeutic environment where everyday Villa Maraini offers a comprehensive path of services to more than 600 clients from the street to the community, in a continuum of care, in order to adapt the therapy to the person, according to the motivation, needs and adherence. Participants personally met clients and heard witness from them and the social workers (all former drug users – the core of the VM staff), and were able to deepen the whole access to treatment strategy of Villa Martaini, from the very low-threshold to the high threshold.

DPNSEE Executive Director Milutin Milošević actively participated at the Summit and was honoured to speak at the opening session.

How to set up online harm reduction services?

Posted on 21/04/202311/07/2023 by Milutin

The Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) presents a brief guide with recommendations how to launch a new – or improve an existing – online harm reduction service for people who use drugs. The guide “Recommendations for setting up online harm reduction services” entails all the information needed to start-up an online outreach programme. The information is presented in the form of concise, evidence-based, easily implementable recommendations.

It provides step-by-step, practical advice organized into thematic units, including sections on how to launch programs, policy development, staffing, safety and security, referral procedures, and a section on monitoring and evaluation.

The text is 100% reader-friendly, meaning that you literary do not need to know anything about ‘saturation’ or ‘validity’ or any other research related terminology. The recommendations included in this guide can be adapted in line with the needs and resources of individual organisations, local contexts, and characteristics of the target population. They can also be adapted for web outreach with other key populations, such as people living with HIV, sex workers, or men who have sex with men.

To access the Guide, follow this link>>>.

A quiet CND

Posted on 17/03/202311/07/2023 by Milutin

The 66th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) was held between 13th and 17th March in hybrid format with much broader in-person participation than in the past two years. Chaired by the Colombian Ambassador Miguel Camino Ruiz Blanco, it was also the first ever CND session that was recorded on UN Web TV. Positively, a wide number of civil society organisations attended, with 135 NGOs registered, and more than 570 NGO participants following the debates both online and in person.

In a way, the CND was quiet and without many sparkles, but some statements indicate that the next one will be very intense.

As in previous years, the session was marked by ongoing clashes between more progressive member states, and those that continue to promote a war on drugs approach, resulting in new tensions and contradictions hampering the so-called ‘Vienna consensus’. This was clearly felt during the fractious negotiations of the 5 draft resolutions tabled for this CND session.

For the first time in recent history, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addressed the CND, which is an important historical development in itself. Recognising that ‘if drugs destroy lives, the same can also be true of drug policies’, Mr. Türk called for ‘transformative change’ in the global approach to drugs.

The call for change was explicitly echoed by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health. After restating the known fact that criminalisation aggravates stigma and discrimination against people who use drugs, the Special Rapporteur urged States to ‘End prohibition, decriminalize drug use or the possession, purchase, or cultivation of drugs for personal use and other related activities; and introduce appropriate regulations’. Other clear and open challenges to the global drug control regime were voiced by Member States.

But if the 66th CND session witnessed some open challenges to the UN drug control regime, the status quo stroke back. At least 14 countries took the floor to express concern over the legal regulation of cannabis and the resulting contravention of the UN drug conventions. In contrast with

It was another record-breaking year for side events at this year’s CND, with 155 taking place in total, up 21 from last year. In contrast to last year, where side events remained entirely online, the 66th session saw the majority of its side events take place in-person or in a hybrid setting. Only 20 side events took place solely in an ‘online setting’, which meant that in-person attendance for events was extremely high, including from UN diplomats.

DPNSEE President Nebojša Djurasović, Board Member Marios Atzemis, Executive Director Milutin Milošević and several other member organisations’ representatives participated in the event. For the first time, DPNSSE participated in the meeting in full capacity as an ECOSOC-accredited NGO.

In addition to very useful meetings with UNODC representatives, especially Ms. Fariba Soltani and Gorica Popović (including sharing about the implementation of the project for refugees from Ukraine) and colleagues from the Rome Consensus 2.0 (Marios spoke at their side event “A global call for deflection: as the new policy on policing and drugs”), Milutin participated in events organised by the EU Civil Society Forum on Drugs.

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>>>.