Today in Geneva, Switzerland, starts 29th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB). In order to draw attention of this governing body of UNAIDS and all of those who are committed to counteracting HIV epidemics in the world, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) presents newly released report „HIV and the Law“, which reveals brutal drug users human rights violations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), and calls on governments to implement humane drug policies which support rights of millions of people who use drugs and promote effective measures in response to HIV epidemic.

„The behaviour of the governments of Eastern Europe and Central Asia towards people who use drugs – and there is not single country without some degree of culpability – is both brutal and diabolical. I can scarecly believe what these pages yield. It is though we were thrown back to medieval times when agony on the rack was the punishment for the most trifling of so-called crimes“, - with these words of famous HIV/AIDS activist, international advocacy organization AIDS-Free World Co-Director and Commissioner of Global Commission on HIV and the Law Stephen Lewis starts the foreword of the report.

The report presents the results of monitoring of human rights violations in the region of EECA and recommendations to address urgent issues in the sphere of HIV and to improve access to prevention and care. The report was developed on the basis of collaboration among communities of people who use drugs from EECA who provided their personal stories to highlight most typical violations of health and social rights. This includes discrimination based on individual health status, violation of right to a fair trial, as well as limited access to essential health services.

„We called a doctor from a district polyclinic, but as soon he heard that she had HIV, he just turned and left. We managed to find a hospital that agreed to admit her, but soon after hospitalization Lika left the ward – she needed drugs, and the hospital didn’t offer drug treatment services. Lika went home and died a few days later,”- this is a testimony of project participants from Russia.

Stephen Lewis states that „governments have a clear choice: to use policies and law to protect those at high risk of contracting HIV or to fail to do so – or, even worse, to allow law and policy to be an additional burden to people already disadvantaged by discrimination and stigma“.

The report concludes that national governments and international organisations should facilitate the adoption of guiding principles on humane drug policies and laws that protect the human rights of people who use drugs on a nondiscriminatory basis, as well as regulations that contribute to achieving the goal of universal access to both HIV prevention and treatment. More specifically, some of report‘s recommendations are: to facilitate the abolition of criminal and administrative liabilities for drug use and possession of drugs for personal use; to abolish the laws, policies and practices that restrict the reproductive and family rights of people who use drugs; to ensure protection of personal data of people who use drugs, including their health-related data, from disclosure to law enforcement agencies, employers or educational institutions; to ensure access to treatment of HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and means for prevention of drug overdose in accordance with the best international practice, and other.

The report was developed in the framework of „Involving Drug Users in the Activities of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law‘ project which was conducted by EHRN from April to October 2011 with support from the Open Society Foundations. The report can be accessed at: http://harm-reduction.org/ehrn-publications.html.

For more information:
Dasha Ocheret
Ph.: +370 68271517
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Eurasian Harm Reduction Network
www.harm-reduction.org

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