Tempo di lettura: 2 minuti

The right to health of people who use drugs
Harm reduction and access to voluntary treatments in a human rights perspective

Friday, 17 march | 8am – 8.50am [CET] Vienna, VIC, M7

Hybrid event | also on ZOOM
ID: 897 9296 0569 | Passcode: 270518
www.fuoriluogo.it/rightohealth

As highlighted by many UN bodies, drug policies must be designed and implemented according to international human rights law. The right to health is a fundamental human right that drug policies have to promote, support and make enforceable.

The respect and promotion of basic human rights principles is an integral part of the approach and of the philosophy of Harm Reduction, starting with the right to health. The contribution of Harm reductionists – professionals, researchers, activists and people who use drugs – to the development of advocacy actions aimed at including human rights as a basis of drug policies has been and is relevant.

Since the 2010s, Harm reduction had been firmly recognized as a crucial pillar of the right to health, confirmed by the 2016 UNGASS. Statements and recommendations on drug policies by many UN bodies assert that the availability, the access and the quality of harm reduction services and interventions are the necessary precondition to make the right to health enforceable. On the contrary, the ban or the lack of Harm reduction interventions expose people who use drugs health (and life) at high risks.

As well, to access to treatment in a voluntary and self-determined way is a right of people who use drugs, while compulsory treatments – in any form – are condemned by the UN bodies as human rights violations.

The event will discuss UN Human rights bodies recommendations and guidelines on Harm reduction and voluntary treatments, their contribution to the civil society advocacy actions and the perspective of enhancing their positive impact on the right to health of People Who Use Drugs.

Speakers

Adria Cots Fernández | IDPC
Decriminalisation at the centre of a rights-affirming drug policy: looking at the UN human rights system and beyond

Dr Elina Steinerte | Human Rights expert & former member of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Intersection of arbitrary detention and the right to health

Susanna Ronconi | Forum Droghe
Mandatory treatments and the right to health: the case of alternative sanctions

Ligia Parodi | EuroNPUD/INPUD
The fight for the right to Health of People who use drugs. Goals and actions

Michelle Wazan | SKOUN
Challenges in implementing the right to health of people who use drugs in Lebanon.

Marco Perduca | Associazione Luca Coscioni
Right to science, right to health