Più di 40 associazioni che si occupano di politiche sulle droghe e dei diritti delle persone che le usano hanno siglato, in occasione dell’8 marzo, una dichiarazione per i diritti delle donne che usano droghe e contro il ritorno al War on Drugs.
La dichiarazione di Barcellona pone l’accento sul sistema globale di repressione che colpisce in particolare le donne e le persone transessuali. Dal più alto tasso di prevalenza di casi di HIV e epatiti, alla violenza strutturale del sistema repressivo che trova spesso le donne ancor più stigmatizzate e marginalizzate, e per questo ancora più vulnerabili. Per non parlare delle sex workers, che rimangono intrappolate in una ragnatela di stigma, discrimazione ed esclusione sociale.
Il testo si conclude con un appello alle risorse delle donne stesse, capaci di essere intraprendenti, creative e forti. Si tratta di una richiesta di solidarietà e non di carità: le donne che usano sostanze combattono il proibizionismo con il mutuo supporto, costruendo reti locali e globali, reclamano la sovranità sul loro corpo e chiedono di vivere la loro vita in sicurezza e libertà.
La Dichiarazione di Barcellona, a cui ha aderito anche Forum Droghe, è sottoscrivibile qui.
Ecco il testo della Dichiarazione di Barcellona
The Barcelona Declaration
On International Women’s Day 2019, we declare that the War On Drugs is a war on Womxn Who Use Drugs
The War On Drugs is racist, sexist, classist and heterosexist, and disproportionately affects womxn of colour, youth and womxn in poor communities.
As womxn, trans and gender non-conforming people surviving this war, we reject the widespread stigma, discrimination and criminalisation we face in our daily lives. We call for complete reform and transformation of the current system of prohibition. We call for an end to the ignorant and negative rhetoric.
Drug treatment services are gendered, classed, sexualised and racialised. Drug ‘treatment’ itself is based on spurious and outdated research, and allows unbridled and unregulated power over the individual. We reject these methods and the ideologies underpinning them.
Global and systemic oppressions violate our rights, as womxn, trans and gender non-conforming people who use drugs, and situate us in multiple, interconnected, vulnerable positions, which lead to numerous harms:
- As womxn who inject drugs, we have a higher prevalence of HIV and Hepatitis than men. Despite this, we don’t appear in data and endure discrimination and exclusion from social and health services. The few resources we have tend to be masculinised and inaccessible as well as often not meeting our needs, interests or expectations.
- We are disproportionately impacted by structural violence and social control from the State (policing, limited access to legal aid, extortion, long prison sentences, rape, extrajudicial murder and capital punishment).
- The majority of womxn in prison are sentenced for non-violent drug related offences. Womxn of colour, ethnic minorities, non-binary or trans, and the homeless are particularly targeted.
- In several countries, we face detention in compulsory, unregulated ‘treatment” centres , often for indefinite periods with little or no access to judicial processes. Incarceration in closed settings creates a context for increased human rights violations, such as rape and extortion.
- We often experience endemic violence and exclusion within our own communities and families. Not only are we more likely to be assaulted by our partners, but we are less likely to have recourse to justice and protection
- We suffer intrusion into our bodily and physical integrity, maternal and family life and domestic space. We face routine violations of our sexual and reproductive health rights, by both community and state such as coerced sterilization and pregnancy termination.
- Stigma that assumes womxn who use drugs cannot take care of their children and misinformation on the effects of drug use feeds into strong pressures to end pregnancy. When we don’t terminate our pregnancies, there’s a strong possibility we will lose custody of our children.
- Those of us who are sex workers, womxn living with disabilities, and especially trans womxn, cope with an unacceptable and compounded web of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion.
Despite living with these and other multiple forms of violence daily, Womxn Fighting back Against the War On Drugs are resourceful, enterprising, creative and strong. We possess remarkable resilience. We fight back against prohibition with solidarity, mutual support and leadership, building our networks from the grassroots to the global, from immediate action to long-term strategies to end this war on womxn who use drugs. We embrace intersectional and anti-prohibitionist feminism that integrates queer/trans-inclusive and non-ableist approaches, racial justice and the right to use drugs and experience pleasure. We work to reclaim our bodily sovereignty, including rights to the full range of sexual and reproductive health, gender-sensitive health services, and rights to use drugs. We do not ask for charity but for solidarity. We demand to live in safety and freedom.
This declaration is an invitation to join forces with womxn like us, womxn who demand an end to the War on Drugs and the negative impact it has on all our lives.
“Let us all cause some trouble and begin to change the world with and for women who use drugs with our powerful conceptual armaments in hand.” Elizabeth Ettorre (feminist scholar)
Our bodies – our choice, our rights, our voice.
#narcofeminism #femdrug
Womxn Who Use Drugs
The following groups / organisations support this declaration:
To add your organisation’s name to the signatories in solidarity or to keep in touch – please complete this form.
Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN)
COUNTERfit
Metzineres. Environments of Shelter for Womxn who Use Drugs Surviving Violences
XADUD. Network of Womxn who Use Drugs
REMA. Network of Anti-Prohibitionist Women
Eurasian Harm Reduction Association
ARSU – Grup de Dones
FAAAT think & do tank
Pla d’accions sobre drogues de Reus
European Institute for Multidisciplinary Studies on Human Rights and Science | Knowmad Institut
Iglesia Evangélica Protestante de El Salvador (IEPES)
Youth RISE
Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
International Network of Women who use Drugs (INWUD)
PeerNUPS
Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Género y Drogodependencias (Madrid)
EuroNPUD
AFEW International
Life Quality Improvement Organisation FLIGHT
CA Prima
“Harmreduction network” Association
Društvo AREAL
AFEW International
PeNUPS
CASO Portugal
APDES
WeCanna-Weedgest
Youth Organisation for Drug Action
NGO Re Generation
Perempuan Pengguna NAPZA Indonesia dan Deklarasi Jenggala
CHECK!N
LUNEST, EHPV
Asia Catalyst
Tinatin Zardiashvili
Real People Real Vision
CF “VIRTUS”
Stop Overdose Now
ANTONIA ROSSI
ARAS – Romanian Association Against AIDS
Association Margina
Delhi Drug User Forum
En Plenas Facultades
CA PRIMA
Release
LGBT organization Labrys
ALE “Kazakhs Union of People Living with HIV”
AKUT Foundation, Hungary
ItanPUD – Italian Network of People Who Use Drugs
Club “Svitanok”, Ukraine
Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS
Hepminus
Crew
Kosmicare Association
COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program (Canada)
Jane Lane
ASAUPAM
ARSU
Toronto Overdose Prevention Society
Help Not Harm
Forum Droghe
