More UN endorsement for Harm Reduction

See below article which describes how another UN body (ECOSOC) has endorsed harm reduction.

While this is good news, the story highlights the sad reality that the UN still does not speak with one voice on this issue. Even though all the main UN health bodies (i.e. WHO, UNAIDS) fully endorse harm reduction, as have the most recent General Secretaries, some UN bodies (i.e. UNODC and the notorious Commission on Narcotic Drugs), still prevaricate on the issue. UNODC is the lead agency on IDU within the UN, but its director still often speaks of NSP programs with only moderate support.

In our IDU countries, we look primarily to WHO and UNAIDS to support our harm reduction programs. It's important to keep UNODC colleagues well informed, but we usually don't rely on them for strong, vocal support for harm reduction. We hope UNODC will continue to be more and more comfortable supporting harm reduction in the future.

Details below.

Rob



18th August 2009

UN Economic and Social Council Endorses Harm Reduction

http://www.ihra.net/News#UNEconomicandSocialCouncilEndorsesHarmReduction

In July 2009, the United Nation’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution related to the work of the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS). The resolution was agreed at an ECOSOC meeting in Geneva focusing on the social determinants of health. It contains an explicit supportive reference to harm reduction – the first official mention of harm reduction by this senior UN body.

The resolution “[r]ecognizes the need for UNAIDS to significantly expand and strengthen its work... to support increased capacity and resources for the provision of a comprehensive package of services for injecting drug users including harm reduction programmes”. The resolution was supported by 31 Member States (and was not opposed during the meeting), and follows on from another recent endorsement of harm reduction by the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. This resolution is further evidence of the expanding acceptance and credibility of harm reduction approaches at the international level.

ECOSOC was one of the original UN bodies established under the United Nations Charter in 1945. It co-ordinates the work of a number of specialised UN agencies, programmes and commissions – including UNAIDS. The ECOSOC meetings serve as the central forum for discussing a broad range of issues such as standards of living, employment, economic and social progress, and health problems. Crucially, however, ECOSOC is also the ‘parent’ body of the central drug policy forum in the UN – the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Unlike ECOSOC, CND which has yet to make an official, explicit endorsement of harm reduction, due in no small part to an over-reliance on consensus which has allowed a minority of Member States (including Japan, Russia and the USA) to actively oppose harm reduction during discussions and in the wording of resolutions. It will be interesting to see whether the ambiguous and incongruous position of CND changes now that harm reduction has been formally endorsed by ECOSOC as well as the UN General Assembly (the chief organ of the United Nations comprising all 192 Member States), and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.