News and Announcements

Harm Reduction International Condemns New Bangladesh Law Expanding Use of the Death Penalty for Drugs

29 October 2018

Parliament passes bills that bucks global trend toward abolition of the death penalty LONDON (29 OCTOBER) – Bangladesh’s parliament passed a bill on 27 October that expands use of the death penalty for drug offenses in the country. The Narcotics Control Act 2018, an update to the 1990 Act, now makes the manufacture and distribution of… Read more

Harm Reduction International appoints Naomi Burke-Shyne as executive director

30 July 2018

(LONDON 30 July) – Harm Reduction International (HRI) announced today the appointment of Naomi Burke-Shyne as its new executive director. She will take the position on 1 September 2018, replacing Dr Rick Lines who has served as executive director since 2010. Naomi joined Harm Reduction International in October 2017 as deputy director and has… Read more

Donor funding for harm reduction drops one quarter in a decade, placing global HIV response under threat

23 July 2018

New research finds annual funding for harm reduction in low- and middle-income countries is 13% of the required amount to prevent HIV among people who inject drugs LONDON (23 July 2018) – Funding for harm reduction services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is in crisis, according to a new report from Harm Reduction International… Read more

Harm Reduction International Executive Director announces his departure

29 May 2018

After eleven years at Harm Reduction International, eight of them as Executive Director, I will be stepping down at the end of August. This year marks my 25th anniversary working in harm reduction.… Read more

HR19 Venue Announcement

11 April 2018

HR19 – 28 April - 1 May 2019 – Porto HRI is pleased to announce that the Harm Reduction International Conference 2019 (HR19) will be held at the Alfândega Porto Congress Centre. “Oporto, Portugal” by Jose A. is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Located in the historic centre of the city of Porto, along the bank of the Douro River, it was… Read more

Harm Reduction International at the 61st Commission on Narcotic Drugs 2018

01 March 2018

The Commission for Narcotic Drugs presents an important opportunity to increase support for harm reduction and human rights in the international drug policy system. This year, Harm Reduction International will be using this opportunity to shape preparations for the 2019 High Level Segment and to begin planning with key governments and allies on… Read more

HR19 Host City Announced as Porto, Portugal

22 February 2018

Abaixo para a versão portuguesa Harm Reduction International (HRI) and Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento (APDES) are delighted to announce that the 26th Harm Reduction International Conference – HR19 – will be held in Porto, Portugal from 28 April to 1 May 2019. For international visitors, this conference will be a unique opportunity to… Read more

69 years later, we’re still arguing for the right to life

17 December 2017

This article was originally published on Medium. The original can be found here. Gen Sander, Human Rights Analyst, Harm Reduction International Alireza Madadpur, a young man with no criminal record from a poor family, was executed for drug offences in Iran last summer. Scraping to make ends meet, Alireza agreed to a cleaning job offered… Read more

Why Harm Reduction Is Crucial to the Fight Against HIV

01 December 2017

This article was first published by Open Society Foundations. The original may be found here . Earlier this fall, an international team of researchers sounded a grim warning about the state of the global HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs. In two long-awaited research papers published in the Lancet, they laid out the evidence that not… Read more

Comprehensive Actions Against the Death Penalty for Drug Offences

20 June 2017

There is a clear, longstanding and worldwide trend towards the restriction or abolition of the death penalty. Yet, the number of countries expanding the application of the death penalty to include drug offences has increased. Indeed, between 1979 and 2015, the number of countries prescribing the death penalty for drugs increased from around 10 to… Read more