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International AIDS Society, human rights groups urge nations to reject new UN Political Declaration on Drugs

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Human Rights Watch, the International AIDS Society and the International Harm Reduction Association have called on nations to reject the new UN Political Declaration on Drugs due to issues with the UN position on harm reduction services.

Harm reduction services include needle and syringe exchange programs and medication-assisted therapy. These programs should be implemented among the general population as well as among incarcerated individuals, according to officials from the International AIDS Society.

The new UN Political Declaration on Drugs is designed to help direct international drug policies in the future. Despite previous recommendations to do so, the document does not sanction harm reduction services.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS and WHO all have endorsed harm reduction as an essential arm in the fight against HIV/AIDS. There is a significant amount of evidence supporting the benefits of harm reduction services in preventing disease transmission, according to International AIDS Society officials.

“This political declaration fails public health,” Craig McClure, executive director of the International AIDS Society, said in a press release. “Coming less than 12 months after UN member states convened a high-level meeting in New York to restate the international commitment to fight HIV, the denial of any reference in the declaration to life-saving harm reduction programs is unacceptable and unconscionable.”