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‘This region is shaped by
its recent history and the
transition to democracy,’
former Polish president
Aleksander Kwa´sniewski
told the conference.
While accomplishments in address-
ing HIV
had been more successful in
some areas than others, there were
nonetheless many examples of good
practice, he said – in Moldova, Poland,
the Czech Republic and elsewhere.
‘But we need to work to make sure
evidence-based interventions are
accessible across the region.’
During his presidency he had
passed a law criminalising the
possession of drugs, he told delegates.
‘A decade later, I know that was a
mistake. Drug users became invisible in
Poland, and we engaged the resources
of the Polish criminal justice system to
arrest people for small amounts of
drugs for personal use.’
This meant that young people had
been needlessly criminalised at a time of
high youth unemployment, he said, and
the punitive approach had done nothing
to deter people from using drugs.
Portugal, however, was a powerful
example of how a national drug policy
could work to everyone’s benefit.
Evidence was vital, he stressed. ‘It
helped to convince me of the need for
new policies and I know it’s convincing
other leaders too. Scientific evidence
helps to convince not just politicians
and policymakers, but the general
public as well. In this era of fiscal
austerity, we have to think about
whether policies such as prosecuting
people for minor drugs offences are
cost-effective.’
However it was also vital that
austerity was not allowed to become
an excuse for not investing in
evidence-based programmes, he
stated. ‘A quarter of a century ago
human rights changed this region. It’s
vital that they do so again. We as the
international community will fully
support you in your fight.’
Wednesday 12 June 2013 –
Daily Update
– 5
The power of
evidence
KEEP THE PROMISE
:
Representatives of Demetra – an association of
HIV-affected women and their families – along with other national
and international organisations call on Lithuanian leaders to change
their HIV and harm reduction policies. Despite Lithuania’s
achievements compared to other countries in the region, there was
still a need to scale up evidence-based interventions, they stated. ‘We
strongly encourage our politicians to take the responsibility to keep
their commitments and implement international guidelines and
recommendations,’ said Demetra head, Svetlana Kulsis.
Politicians told:
Time to be brave
‘We introduced harm reduction measures in 1986-
87, and it was extremely controversial,’
said former
British health secretary Lord Norman Fowler. ‘We were
told it would increase criminality. That did not happen,
but what did happen is that new drug-related
infections have been consistently down to 2 per cent
ever since. Harm reduction programmes work.’
One of the key lessons was that countries needed
to be brave, he told
delegates, with
politicians leading
public opinion rather
than following it. ‘I go
around the world and I
hear about all sorts of
pilot projects, but I
don’t think we even
need pilot projects any
more. The evidence is
there, and it’s
absolutely clear.’
Indonesia’s harm
reduction programmes
had begun in 1999,
Anton Djajaprawira of
community-based
organisation Rumah
Cemara told the
session, with ‘huge
interest’ from donors
ever since. ‘But what this has meant is that at times
there were the same interventions being implemented
in one particular area.’
There was also often a lack of flexibility, he said, with
needs going unmet and a general lack of community
involvement. In response, community-based harm
reduction initiatives had begun in recent years, with
interventions now operating across three provinces.
‘Community-based operations decide their actions
based on community needs,’ he stated. ‘It’s a
participatory approach, and it fills the gaps rather than
implementing the same interventions. It integrates all
the available harm reduction services.’
Rumah Cemara’s work now included prison pre-
release programmes, capacity building, legal
assistance, youth work, needle and syringe
distribution and services for remote areas, he said.
‘And for services to work, the involvement of people
who use drugs at management level is essential.’
For now, however, programme sustainability still
depended on donors and the government, he said.
‘But grassroots communities can perform very well if
they’re given the trust and flexibility to do so.’
‘
The evidence
is there... it’s
absolutely
clear.’
LORD NORMAN FOWLER