At its 24th meeting, 22-24 June, 2009, the governing body of UNAIDS - Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) - reaffirmed its commitment to harm reduction.

UNAIDS delivered a progress report on efforts toward HIV prevention amongst injecting drug users.

There had been some concern that the inclusion of the term "harm reduction" would be under threat in light of this year’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

However, the Board confirmed the terminology and commitment to harm reduction efforts in relation to HIV.

The Board approved an unprecedented number of decisions related to HIV in people who use drugs - 11 out of the total 55 adopted at the meeting.

The decisions emphasized the importance for national governments to reaffirm their commitment to harm reduction and harmonize national laws governing HIV and drug use from a public health and human rights perspective, as well as the need for UNAIDS and Cosponsors to strengthen their work with donors and governments on greater resource mobilization and to support national authorities in aligning policies. The Board requested UNAIDS to increase assistance to civil society in harm reduction advocacy.

The decisions considered different sub-groups of drug users as well as spouses and partners of people who use drugs; special attention was paid to the needs of non-injecting  drug users as well as to broader health needs of people who use drugs. The NGO Delegation’s call for increased focus on Hepatitis B and C co-infection was passed.

This forward-looking set of recommendations was adopted to contribute to increased coverage of measures to reduce HIV in drug users. It is now up to
the civil society and people who use drugs to work with regional and country offices of UNAIDS and Cosponsors, especially UNODC, to see these recommendations in action.

For more information follow the link to the 24th PCB meeting documents:
http://www.unaids.org/en/AboutUNAIDS/Governance/PCBArchive/24th_PCB_Meeting_June_2009.asp

* Starting July 1, 2009 until the end of its term at PCB (December 2009), the Russian Harm Reduction Network will be represented by its Executive Director Pavel Aksenov.