News and Announcements

People who inject drugs left behind, HRI warns UNAIDS chief

25 July 2016

For the second time in a month, Harm Reduction International has written to UNAIDS , the organisation tasked with leading the global HIV response, to voice growing concern that people who use drugs are being left behind. The latest letter to the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibe, warns that a recent decision to withhold funds pledged… Read more

Read Harm Reduction International's 2015 Annual Report

22 June 2016

Read about our work in 2015 below. To download, click the link above. Read more

HRI intervention at High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS

08 June 2016

The following intervention was made by HRI Campaigns Manager Olga Szubert on Wednesday 8th June 2016 at the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York. Esteemed delegates, dear colleagues, This intervention is on behalf Harm Reduction International and a wider group of harm reduction organisations from all over the world. In September… Read more

Scottish MP Paul Monaghan Champions Harm Reduction at UNGASS

11 May 2016

This April at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), the delegation from Harm Reduction International were privileged to host UK parliamentarian Dr Paul Monaghan MP. Paul has a… Read more

The human rights ‘win’ at the UNGASS on drugs that no one is talking about, and how we can use it

09 May 2016

By Rick Lines and Damon Barrett This post originally appeared on the University of Essex Human Rights Centre Blog . The April 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug… Read more

The potential to end AIDS among people who inject drugs: Why member states at the HIV High Level Meeting must champion harm reduction

22 April 2016

As part of a global coalition of harm reduction organisations*, Harm Reduction International makes the following calls on UN member states at the upcoming High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. We urge member states to champion harm reduction at the High Level Meeting on HIV by pushing for inclusion of the following elements: Acknowledge that the… Read more

Death Penalty for drugs the preserve of an extreme fringe of national governments

18 April 2016

The use of the death penalty to punish drug-related offences is the policy choice of an extreme fringe of national governments. This was the message of Dr Rick Lines, Harm Reduction International… Read more

Harm Reduction: the inconvenient truth of the drug control system

15 April 2016

For a more interactive experience, read this story on medium.com . The largest international meeting on drugs in twenty years is taking place in New York from 19 th – 21 st April. This United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs or “UNGASS” was called to offer an opportunity to examine what is working, and what is not in the… Read more

Harm Reduction Intervention at Civil Society Hearing for UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, 6th April 2016

06 April 2016

Benjamin Phillips of the Harm Reduction Coalition made the following intervention on behalf of a global working group of harm reduction organisations, including Harm Reduction International, at the Civil Society Hearing for the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York: The 2011 target of halving HIV among people who use drugs has been… Read more

25th International Harm Reduction Conference to be held in Montréal in 2017

21 March 2016

London, United Kingdom, and Montréal, QC, Canada, March 21 st 2016 – Harm Reduction International (HRI) and The Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec (AIDQ), with the support of the Direction de la santé publique (DSP) of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec (Health and Social Services Ministry of… Read more