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10th March 2010
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IHRA Vacancy: Appointment of Executive Director
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The Board of Directors of the International Harm Reduction Association invites suitably qualified persons to apply for the full-time post of Executive Director to lead IHRA in the next stage of its development.
The post becomes available because of the departure later this year of the Executive Director, Professor Gerry Stimson who has led IHRA with distinction since 2004.
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Closing deadline for applications: 31 March, 2010
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9th March 2010
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CND Blog 2010
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CNDblog is a project of the International Harm Reduction Association, and is administered in partnership with the International Drug Policy Consortium. Its objective is to ensure transparency in the deliberations of the 53rd session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).
CND is the UN body tasked with overseeing global drug policy. However, despite this important mandate, the Commission chooses to work in relative secrecy. Its meetings are not webcast, nor are minutes or summary records made available to the public. The final reports of the meetings are extremely limited. The CND never votes, so it is difficult to find out what position your government has taken on key issues. CNDblog is an attempt to fill this gap, and provide hour by hour records of the debates and decisions rendered during the 53rd session of CND in March 2010.
The first CNDblog was done in 2009. That project was such a success that we have decided to do it all again this year. The entire archive of the 2009 CND session is also available on this site.
Want to know what positions your government is taking on global drug policy? You'll only find out at CNDblog.
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5th March 2010
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Youth RISE Activities for 2009
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Youth RISE, the only youth-led international harm reduction network, released its annual report detailing its activities in the past year and its plans for 2010.
The organisation – which is supported by IHRA, Release, UNICEF and the Open Society Institute – maintained its momentum throughout 2009 with a dizzying calendar of activities that coincided with its added focus on messaging and organisational infrastructure.
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Highlights for 2009 include:
• Advocacy for harm reduction policies and the inclusion of young people into policy development at numerous international fora including the UN.
• Hosting of a session entitled, “What are our rights? Young People, Drugs and Harm Reduction” at IHRA’s International Conference on Drug Related Harms in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Kyla Zanardi, International Projects Coordinator delivered a presentation on research, program experiences and applications towards young injecting drug users at a meeting that sought to bring together UN agencies and civil society to discuss and collaborate on addressing the needs of most-at-risk adolescents.
• Delivery of recommendations on how to better engage young injection drug users, and address issues of criminalization, which create a barrier to prevention, care, and treatment of HIV UNAIDS consultation.
• Participation in the Drug Policy Alliance’s International Drug Policy Conference in New Mexico, USA and the Middle East North Africa Harm Reduction Association’s Conference in Beirut, Lebanon.
This is in addition to numerous contributions to policy reports, research and other publications. Youth RISE is already off to busy 2010 and announced its plans to broadcast live via the Web, its recommendations to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
The recommendations will push for evidence-based drug education, prevention and primary social and healthcare services for young people affected by drug use; removal of the stigma and age-related barriers in young people’s access to drug treatment and other services like HIV testing without parental consent, and granting confidentiality, and development of policies in the spirit of international human rights law and in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child.
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4th March 2010
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IHRA joins call for Robin Hood Tax
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The International Harm Reduction Association has lent its support to the Robin Hood Tax, a proposed levy on speculative banking transactions that would be used to sustain vital health services, fight global poverty and climate change.
IHRA joins Oxfam, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Save the Children, The Salvation Army, UNICEF, and many, many others in supporting the initiative.
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IHRA’s statement reads: “Current levels of funding are in no way sufficient to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Robin Hood Tax is a simple idea, rooted in social justice that would make a huge difference in scaling up the response.”
IHRA’s executive director, Professor Gerry Stimson, will outline in a forthcoming presentation that globally just three cents a day is spent per injecting drug user in low and middle-income countries on measures to prevent the spread of HIV. This presentation will be made at IHRA’s 21st International Conference in Liverpool.
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2nd March 2010
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HIV prevention, treatment, and care services for people who inject drugs
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The Lancet published a paper that researched shortfalls in HIV prevention, treatment, and care services for injecting drug users (IDUs) worldwide.
The findings revealed that international “coverage of HIV prevention, treatment, and care services in IDU populations is very low” and are nowhere near the levels required to meet the needs of the population.
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In reporting the findings, Reuters quoted Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of the International Harm Reduction Association, saying the government is “playing politics with people's lives” and that millions were at risk as a result.
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This report follows an article in the Guardian on-line where Professor Stimson revealed that globally just three US cents a day is spent per injecting drug user in low and middle-income countries. The dearth of international support for harm reduction measures intended to limit the spread of HIV among injecting drug users will be the subject of a forthcoming presentation by Professor Stimson at IHRA’s 21st International Conference in Liverpool.
The Lancet study is supported by data published by IHRA that revealed IDUs make up the majority of new adult HIV infections in many countries. As written in the Global State of Harm Reduction almost two-thirds of new diagnoses in Eurasia were attributable to injecting drug use.
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1st March 2010
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The Access to Opioid Medication in Europe (ATOME) Project
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Leading scholars and public health specialists have formed a new consortium that will work to identify and remove barriers in Europe that prevent people from accessing critical opioid medications.
The Access to Opioid Medication in Europe (ATOME) project, of which IHRA is a partner, will include a substantial review of 12 countries’ policies and legislation on opioid medicines.
Many drugs on the World Health Organisation’s List of Essential Medicines are also controlled narcotics under the international drug control conventions, including morphine for pain treatment, and methadone and buprenorphine for opioid substitution therapy. Such legal controls vary greatly across Europe, which can limit physicians’ power to prescribe essential medicines. It also can create a complex set of rules that can be difficult for medical professionals to understand and abide by.
The ATOME project is being launched with €2.45 million commitment from the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme. It will be co-led by the University of Aachen in Germany, Lancaster University in the UK and the World Health Organization (WHO). In the future, IHRA will run one-day conferences in each country under review.
Willem Scholten, of the WHO Access to Controlled Medicines Programme said, “The potential benefits of this partnership extend well beyond palliative care. For example, there are around 3.7 million people who inject drugs in Europe, but only a minority has access to methadone therapy. Such therapy not only helps them manage their dependency, but also helps their social re-integration and prevents them using ‘street drugs’ which increase their risk of harm and lead to infections like HIV from needle sharing.”
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 Click here to read the announcement [PDF:46KB]
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26th February 2010
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Methadone Programme Launches in Kabul
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The first methadone programme in Afghanistan began treating patients on 22 February.
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Médecins du Monde (MDM) Harm Reduction Programme in Kabul was launched in September 2006 in Kabul. Opium substitution treatment component is now available two years after the National Consensus Conference on Opioid Substitution Therapy, which was held with the involvement of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health. The agency, along with other officials and public health specialists, provided pivotal support for the life-saving programme, including antiretroviral therapy.
Methadone treatment joins a growing programme of harm reduction services in the country, though much more is needed. In November, the Transnational Institute reported swiftly growing rates of heroin dependence and high-risk injecting practices. Country specialists also report that injecting drug users face additional dangers of exposure and disease in the bitter winter months.
It is hoped that MDM’s Harm Reduction Programme will help serve as a model for other service-providers.
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22nd February 2010
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UNODC Documents Support for Harm Reduction in 2009
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A report of the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime summarised the agency’s support for harm reduction strategies internationally.
The UNODC outlined nine interventions in its package of HIV-related services including needle and syringe programmes; opioid substitution therapy; HIV testing and counselling and antiretroviral therapy.
However, the UNODC added, “In many countries, the HIV response is insufficiently grounded in evidence and fails to meet international legal obligations to promote, protect and respect human rights. For example, in 40 per cent of the 129 countries submitting reports to UNAIDS there continue to be laws, regulations or policies that interfere with access to and effectiveness of HIV-related services for people who inject drugs.”
The report, titled “Responding to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases among drug users,” emphasises the need to "advocate and facilitate human rights-focused policies and legislation" and "to involve, in a meaningful way, people who use drugs in policy and programme reviews."
The agency highlighted women and prisoners as particularly vulnerable populations.
The UNODC emphasised gaps that still need to be addressed including “low access to services; inconsistencies in policy approaches to support key activities in relation to drug use and HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services; resource shortages; stigmatization and marginalization of drug users; legal and policy restraints on opioid substitution therapy; low access to hepatitis C diagnostics and treatment; extremely low access to services in prisons; HIV prevalence among prisoners; weak data and mechanisms for identifying emerging epidemics; and lack of systematic attention to HIV and forms of drug use other than injecting.”
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18th February 2010
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Cambodia’s Looming ‘Health Crisis’
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Harm reduction advocates in Cambodia are warning of a rise in the deadly practice of needle sharing after the government failed to renew a local needle exchange programme’s license.
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Harm reduction NGO, Korsang, had operated a needle exchange programme in Phnom Penn until 1 January. The group’s license was not renewed after it refused to cooperate with the National Authority for Combating Drugs, which was looking for participants for a controversial detoxification drug programme, according to the story in the Phnom Penn Post.
The organisation has since reported an increase in needle sharing. According to IHRA’s Global State of Harm Reduction adult HIV prevalence among injecting drug users is close to 23 percent, which advocates fear could swell.
“There has been no consistent access to sterile injection equipment since our licence was not renewed,” Korsang’s founder, Holly Bradford, told the Phnom Penn Post. “Blood-borne viruses are definitely being transmitted. The only way to stop that is to get back in there and make everybody use a new syringe for each injection.”
David Harding, the international coordinator for drugs programmes with Friends-International, added, “This is the first time I’m deeply concerned that harm reduction is not serving its population … I would say this is a developing health crisis. What we have right now is a situation where we simply don’t know how serious this is going to get.”
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15th February 2010
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Pakistan’s HIV Response in Danger
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The HIV response in Pakistan, which includes critical harm reduction programmes, is under threat due to a shortage of resources.
The country produced a comprehensive plan of action that was estimated to cost $293 million (USD) over five years. The plan includes services for at-risk populations and evidence-based direction for programmes aimed at injecting drug users and other vulnerable populations.
“Pakistan has made substantial progress over recent years, including in addressing sensitive social issues and increasingly involving people living with HIV in the forefront of the AIDS response” says Oussama Tawil, UNAIDS Country Coordinator. “However, it is now critical that a collective effort be made to sustain the momentum in these life-saving measures”.
As IHRA reported in its Global State of Harm Reduction, adult HIV prevalence among injecting drug users had been 10.8 percent in 2005. That number grew to an alarming 21 percent in 2008, according to UNAIDS.
Pakistan has tried to scale up its harm reduction services in response and integrated HIV-prevention into existing health programmes. However, funding supplied by the World Bank, bilateral donors and government sources, are inadequate to cover the need.
Later this year, IHRA will be releasing a report which examines the current spending on harm reduction programmes within the HIV response and explores what would be necessary in order to reach 'universal access' for people who inject drugs.
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8th February 2010
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Harm Reduction in Prison is Best Practice
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The Chief Executive of the English National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse wrote an excellent commentary defending prison methadone programmes in The Guardian.
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Responding to a series of attacks on methadone programmes in UK prisons, Hayes said that such services were initiated following a costly class-action suit by almost 200 former prisoners who argued that their human rights were violated because they could not access the same medical treatment in prison that they had received outside.
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Hayes wrote, "[O]ver half the prison population are heroin and crack users who will remain in custody for three months or less - either serving short sentences, or on remand. They are not in the system long enough to undergo these residential programmes. Good clinical practice will either continue the treatment the prisoner had before arrest, or prepare them for the treatment they will receive on the outside. Otherwise individuals would be vulnerable to suicide while they were in custody, and to overdose on release."
The editorial coincided with the release of a report from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, which documented the importance of needle and syringe programmes (NSP) as a means of reducing new infections among injecting drug users.
In 2006, the Public Health Agency of Canada recognised the benefits of prison NSPs and that these harm reduction programmes did not result in syringes being used as weapons, an increase in drug use or increased initiation of people injecting drugs while in prison. Despite this evidence, currently no Canadian prisons permit the distribution of clean needles.
The report includes testimony from former prisoners about injecting practices in prison. One former prisoner recalled, "The first time I injected drugs I shared a syringe. One syringe would probably be used for three or four months everyday for at least 20 times a day. We would sharpen it on a matchbook cover to keep it sharpened."
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4th February 2010
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Call for Nominations for Directors of IHRA
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Nominations are currently being invited for IHRA members to serve as Directors and Trustees of the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA), and to sit on the Board of Directors (also known as the Executive Committee). Directors and Trustees are responsible for the governance of the organisation and the broad strategy. They have ultimate responsibility for directing the affairs of IHRA, ensuring that it is well-run and delivering the charitable outcomes for the benefit of the public for which it was set up.
IHRA is a UK company registered under Company Law in England and Wales, and also a Charity registered in England and Wales. Therefore, those elected as Directors are both Directors of the Company and Trustees of the Charity.
Meetings of the Directors – and all documentation and communication – are in English. Directors need to be available for at least one face-to-face meeting each year, together with a number of teleconferences, and to read and comment on documents for meetings. Good telephone and internet access is essential. Directors are expected to become members of at least one IHRA sub-committee and be available to provide advice and comments between meetings.
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Nominations must be made on the relevant form by March 19th 2010 and sent to IHRA Administrator or fax to +61 3 9328 3008. Nominations must include the following information:
a) The name of the person being nominated and their agreement to the nomination (please note that they must be an IHRA member at the time the nomination is received).
b) The name of the person making the nomination (who must be a paying member of IHRA at the time of making the nomination)
c) The name of a second person supporting the nomination (who must also be a paying member of IHRA)
d) A short profile of the nominee (absolutely no more than 250 words), which will be posted on the IHRA website (please note that IHRA reserves the right to edit this profile for any reason). In order to support a nomination, it is strongly recommended that this profile includes comments referring to the skills and experience that the nominee will bring to IHRA.
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Elections will be held during the IHRA Annual General Meeting – which is scheduled to take place on April 26th 2010 at 12.30pm, Room 4 at the BT Convention Centre (conference venue) – during Harm Reduction 2010: IHRA’s 21st International Conference in Liverpool, England.
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27 January 2010
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Call for Expressions of Interest to Host Future IHRA International Conferences
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IHRA invites expressions of interest for future IHRA international conferences. The conferences are produced in partnership with the Conference Consortium and ordinarily take place in April/May each year. We are seeking partners to host the conference and assist with the development and production of the events. We have venues for 2010, in Liverpool, UK, and 2011, in Beirut, Lebanon, but would like to fix venues and dates for 2012, 2013 and beyond.
Benefits to the host organisations include the opportunity to promote harm reduction nationally and regionally.
Local partners are usually organisations engaged in harm reduction work in the city, country, or region where the conference is taking place, who assist with promoting the conference, securing political and financial support, providing harm reduction and other medical services to delegates, taking part in the design and construction of the programme and acting as the focal point for the conference locally.
If you wish to express an interest in hosting the 2012 conference the deadline for submission of a bid is Wednesday 31st March 2010. If you wish to be considered for years beyond this it would be helpful to have at least basic information – bid team, potential venue(s) hotels, possible local/national/regional support, etc) – without the more detailed costs by that date, as this will at least give us an idea of levels of interest.
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Click here to view information for prospective hosts [PDF:900KB]
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If you have any questions about the information or the process, please contact Paddy Costall, Managing Director of the Conference Consortium.
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15th January 2010
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Nominations Invited for Paolo Pertica Fellowship 2010
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Nominations are now being invited for the 2010 Paolo Pertica Fellowship along with other IHRA Awards -all of which will be presented at Harm Reduction 2010: IHRA’s 21st International Conference.
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The Paolo Pertica Fellowship was established in 2004 by the European Network of Drugs and Infections Prevention in Prisons (ENDIPP). The creation of ENDIPP stemmed from Paolo Pertica’s work with prisoners from a wide range of different nationalities incarcerated in London prisons.
The aim of the Fellowship is to encourage innovative harm reduction work or research in prison and other custodial settings by enabling the recipients to develop small projects. These projects must clearly demonstrate how they contribute to improving the conditions of those individuals in custody who either have drug use or HIV related needs. The Fellowship is for one year with up to €10,000 available. The completed project report is then presented at the next IHRA international conference.
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Criteria
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To develop and report on an innovative HR action research or demonstration project based in prison or other custodial settings. The project could involve:
• Introducing/running HR services
• Research on HR needs
• Education/training on HR.
• Advocating for introduction of HR.
• Advocating for prisoners rights – esp. re drug use.
• Developing a funding proposal for a larger HR project.
Applicants should ensure that their proposal is manageable within the timeframe (one year) and resources available.
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Who can apply
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Individuals or organisations any where in the world. (Applicants do not have to be an IHRA member)
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Deadline
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Applications are now extended to Friday 19th March 2010.
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