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XVI International AIDS Conference
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Between the 13th and the 18th August 2006, the XVI International Aids Conference was held in Toronto, Canada. It was a massive event attended by around 20,000 participants (including key figures from the harm reduction field). The over-riding theme was “Time to Deliver” and the conference programme included presentations by Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and IHRA’s Alex Wodak. There were also demonstrations in support of Canada’s groundbreaking safer injecting site in Vancouver.
At the front entrance of the conference was the Global Village – a 7,000 square metre area reserved for civil society, community organisations, delegates and non-delegates. Among the attendees here was Marcus Day of the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition. In this article, Marcus gives his views on the conference, the Global Village, Alex Wodak’s presentation and the Declaration of Unity that emerged from the event.
“I never realised what a great experience the whole event would be, although I spent most of my time in the Caribbean Networking Zone (which I was running in the Global Village). The Global Village was awesome, full of enthusiasm and with a refreshing air of activism. It was the place to be for networking, information sharing, raising the profile of the Caribbean and showing off the excellent work of NGOs around the world. The bigger organisations with their huge budgets were shocked to see the show what the NGOs could put together with virtually no resources!”
“Although I was unable to attend the plenary session, I managed to watch Alex Wodak’s presentation in the Global Village, where it was being broadcast to an audience of harm reduction experts who had not registered for the full conference. It was a frank, concise and eloquent summarisation of the scientific evidence for harm reduction. Alex highlighted the importance of educating drug users about HIV, providing access to sterile injection equipment (in communities and prisons), treating substance use as a health issue (as opposed to a law enforcement issue) and overcoming those who still oppose these proven interventions. Throughout the speech, the Global Village audience cheered and applauded. The presentation further indicted those bureaucrats whose inactivity or rejection of scientific fact has contributed to the spread of the global HIV epidemic. Immediately after Alex’s plenary, volunteers distributed copies of a collective Declaration of Unity from the global harm reduction networks and organisations”
“Mexico City is the venue for the next conference in 2008. I am already saving to bring my teenage kids so that they can experience the atmosphere and passion in the global village there and I would recommend the rest of you try to be there too. It is a life changing event.”
Also at the conference, demonstrations were held in support of Insite – Canada’s only safer injecting site, which has recently been threatened with closure. The Russian Harm Reduction Network (RHRN) was also awarded with Global Fund money for the national implementation of harm reduction interventions (only the second grant of this nature ever made). They are using the funds to support the scaling up of harm reduction services for injecting drug users – supporting around 30 programmes and aiming to increase coverage from 12% to 60% in five years.
For more information on the conference, please visit www.aids2006.org. This article was written by Jamie Bridge (IHRA) with support from Marcus Day (Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition), Raminta Stuikyte (Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network, Vitaly Djuma (RHRN) and Alex Wodak (IHRA).
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Please click here to view Alex Wodak’s plenary presentation.
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Please note, this is a video of the entire plenary session and you can fast forward to Alex’s presentation which starts after 1 hour and 26 minutes.
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 Download Alex Wodak's conference slides [PDF: 286KB].
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International Declaration of Unity
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At the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, the leading experts and organisations in the field of harm reduction put their signatures to a Declaration of Unity entitled “Harm Reduction and HIV Prevention: Solutions to the Twin Epidemic”. IHRA were among the signatories for this declaration, with Alex Wodak (a former IHRA President and current IHRA Executive Council Member) present at the signing ceremony on Tuesday 11th August.
The Declaration of Unity was formally released and signed in the Global Village of the conference, immediately following a plenary speech on by IHRA’s Alex Wodak. The document was formulated in the weeks leading up to the conference based on a presentation by Allan Clear (Harm Reduction Coalition) to the UN General Assembly “Civil Society Hearing” in May 2006. The final document emerged through the efforts of Pascal Tanguay (Asian Harm Reduction Network) and Holly Kramer (Toronto Harm Reduction Group) among others and 7000 copies were distributed at the conference.
The document has been translated into several languages and calls for improved coverage and access for global harm reduction interventions, equitable access for marginalised groups (such as drug users) to HIV prevention, treatment and medical care, the involvement of drug users at all levels of decision making and an end to the human rights violations endured by drug users across the world.
As well as IHRA, the Declaration was signed or endorsed (among others) by the Asian Harm Reduction Network (www.ahrn.net), the Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network (www.ceehrn.org), the Latin American Harm Reduction Network, the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition, the Canadian Harm Reduction Coalition (www.canadianharmreduction.com), the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, the USA’s Harm Reduction Coalition (www.harmreduction.org) and Harm Reduction Project (www.harmredux.org). It represents the united opinions of harm reduction organisations and experts across the world and urges the UN to take immediate action to tackle HIV and the ongoing global stigmatisation and vulnerability of drug users.
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To download the Declaration of Unity, please click on the relevant link below:
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Declaration of Unity (English) [PDF: 161KB]
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Declaration of Unity (French) [PDF: 26KB]
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Declaration of Unity (Portuguese) [PDF: 165KB]– courtesy of IHRA’s volunteer translators
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Declaration of Unity (Spanish) [PDF: 25KB]– courtesy of IHRA’s volunteer translators
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Declaration of Unity (Russian) [PDF: 337KB]– courtesy of IHRA’s volunteer translators
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Declaration of Unity (Farsi) [PDF: 173KB]– courtesy of IHRA’s volunteer translators
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For more information on the XVI International AIDS Conference, please visit the conference website www.aids2006.org
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In Memory or Vincent P Dole, MD
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Dr. Vincent P. Dole, the man who first proved that methadone could be used to treat opiate addiction, passed away on August 2nd 2006, aged 93. Dr. Dole studied a wide range of human biological processes but it was his work on methadone alongside colleague and second wife Dr. Marie Nyswander that earned the highest accolades. They began their groundbreaking collaborative research in 1964 and, despite threats of criminal and civil action by abstinence-focused groups, established the evidence base behind methadone maintenance treatment. Their work has saved the lives of countless opiate dependent people across the globe and, today, well over three-quarters of a million people throughout the world are able to lead healthy and productive lives thanks to methadone.
After small-scale success in the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University), Dr. Dole and Dr. Nyswander founded the larger "methadone maintenance treatment program" at Beth Israel Medical Center (New York). This proved the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment and is still revered today as validation of this controversial therapy. In the 1970s, Dr. Dole was also responsible for founding the New York City Department of Correction’s detoxification programme, which is still running today as an international model of best practice.
Years before the endorphine system was discovered in the human body, Dr. Dole’s work helped cast addiction as a medical problem (rather than a moral disorder)- one that should be treated like any other chronic illness. Although this is a widely accepted approach today, it was a fascinating, bold and unconventional claim at the time and one that received a great deal of attention, controversy and criticism.
Dr. Dole was born in Chicago in 1913 and earned degrees from Stanford and Harvard universities. He joined the Rockefeller Institute in 1941 and, during World War II, he was a lieutenant commander in the Naval Medical Research Unit at Rockefeller University Hospital. Dr. Dole was also an authority in the study of lipid chemistry, obesity and hypertension but it was his methadone work that received the most praise (including the prestigious Albert Lasker Award in 1988). He retired in 1991 and spent recent years supporting the efforts against the ongoing political and social stigmatisation against drug users and drug treatment.
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Methamphetamine, HIV & Hepatitis Conference
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On February 1st – 3rd 2007, the Harm Reduction Project will be hosting the 2nd National Conference on Methamphetamine, HIV, and Hepatitis at the Hilton City Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The conference theme is “Science & Response” and its aim is to introduce the latest methamphetamine research as well as showcase examples of successful and innovative programmes.
The international audience will include people from small and large communities alongside experts from prevention, treatment, public health, law enforcement, and government. The programme includes topics such as family impact, research, innovative service delivery, and rural and urban responses.
Luciano Colonna (Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Project) says, “Obviously, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach in terms of responses to methamphetamine use, but by presenting the wide spectrum of studies and interventions that are being applied, we hope to learn from one another and draw upon what is effective, what looks promising and what we can apply to our work”.
“We have seen too many times the consequences of approaches that fail to take into consideration the human and cultural dimensions of drug use and that compete for the time and attention of those whose job it is to deliver the goods. The landscape of drug response is littered with failed efforts that began with lofty goals but did not take into account the realities of what is needed to make things work”.
“In regard to research, prevention, treatment, policy, and criminal justice, we are like living organisms: complex, interconnected, and - if we are to grow and thrive - adaptive. Those are the issues at the heart of this year's conference: human resources, information, new discoveries, policies, management, political commitment, innovation and compassion”.
Registration is priced at $300US for the three days (if you register before December) or $135US for a one-day registration. For more information about the conference, details about previous conferences and to register online, please visit www.methconference.org or the Harm Reduction Projects website www.harmredux.org
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