Harmreduction.eu

EUDA has launched the Civil Society Platform on Drugs, a new online space designed for consultation, knowledge sharing and meaningful dialogue.

EUDA invites NGOs, voluntary and community organisations, individuals with lived experience, and representatives of affected communities.

🔗 Learn more:

EUDA engagement with civil society | The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) Civil society plays a key role in shaping policy, providing social and community services, highlighting important issues, and giving a voice to diverse groups, including people in vulnerable situations.

📢 New Regional Report on Civic Space & Community-Led HIV and TB Responses in EECA

In 2025, an extensive regional data collection effort brought together structured inputs from ten countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

The report analyzes how the civic space and legal environment influence community-led responses to HIV and TB across Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).

Grounded in international human-rights standards, the analysis focuses on four key dimensions essential for civil society and sustainable community-led responses:
🔹 Freedom of association
🔹 Freedom of peaceful assembly
🔹 Freedom of expression and access to information
🔹 Criminalization of key populations and protection from reprisals

The report was prepared by Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) in partnership with:
• Eurasian Coalition for Health, Rights and S*xual Diversity (ECOM)
• Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (EWNA)
• S*x Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN)

This collaboration ensures that the realities of shrinking civic space and criminalization affecting LGBTQI+ communities, people living with HIV, people who use drugs, and s*x workers are fully reflected.
📄 Read the full report:https://risedecriminalize.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/EHRA-Report_Shrinking-civic-space-marginalized-communities-EECA_2025-ENG.pdf

Four years of unprovoked war. Four years of unbroken resolve. 🇪🇺🇺🇦

The EU firmly stands behind those who have staked so much in fight against Russia's full-scale invasion. We are:

🛡️ Providing temporary protection for over four million Ukrainians

🏗️ Working to help rebuild hospitals, schools, and homes – the country's lifeblood - with €36.8 billion

🇪🇺 Advancing EU accession negotiations because Ukraine belongs in the European family

Our assistance, including €194.9 billion in overall support, is a big part of our answer to restore Ukraine's freedom and independence.

Europe stands for unity. Europe stands for security.
Europe stands with Ukraine.

🇺🇦 Four years since the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

📢 New Operational Guide from WHO on Needle and Syringe Programmes!

We’re excited to share a practical, evidence-based resource designed to help countries plan, implement, and scale up needle and syringe programmes for people who inject drugs — a key part of comprehensive harm reduction. 🌍

This guide turns WHO’s recommendations into clear, actionable steps for programme managers, implementers, donors and community-led organisations. It offers a structured framework covering:
✔ Assessment & planning
✔ Service delivery models
✔ Integration with broader health and social services
✔ Monitoring & sustainability

At its heart are principles of community leadership, human rights, and equitable access, with tools to adapt to local contexts — including in closed settings.

💡These resources will support faster, smarter implementation and contribute to global efforts to control HIV and eliminate viral hepatitis.

Read or download the full guide here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240116214

🚨 Global drug control is failing — and the human cost is devastating. 🚨

A new report from the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) delivers a stark warning: current global drug control policies are not working. Despite commitments by the UN to human rights, public health, sustainable development and cooperation, the system remains dangerously misaligned — wasting billions in public funds while causing serious harm to the world’s most vulnerable communities.

While some countries are making progress, punitive and prohibitionist approaches still dominate worldwide. These policies haven’t reduced drug markets — they’ve helped them expand and diversify. Today, an estimated 316 million people use drugs globally, a 28% increase since 2016.

The consequences are tragic and preventable:
▪️ 2.6 million drug-related deaths between 2016 and 2021, with numbers still rising
▪️ 1 in 5 people imprisoned globally for a drug offence, fuelling mass incarceration and inequality
▪️ 150+ countries reporting inadequate access to opioid pain relief due to excessive restrictions
▪️ The expansion of the death penalty for drug offences, with hundreds of confirmed executions
▪️ Environmental damage as drug activities are pushed into fragile regions like Central America and the Amazon

The message is clear: repression isn’t the answer. Evidence-based, rights-focused drug policies are urgently needed — policies that save lives, protect communities, and use public resources wisely.

📢 It’s time for change.

New report warns international drug policy is failing — as ‘war on drugs’ regains momentum As the United Nations embarks on far-reaching institutional reform, a major new report from the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) delivers a stark warning: global drug control is failing.

How do we really prevent drug-related violence? 🤔

There’s an ongoing tension in how we respond to illicit drug use and interpersonal violence. On one hand, public health approaches are gaining traction. On the other, there’s still a strong belief that law enforcement and criminalisation are the main solutions.

Our latest work brings these perspectives together, asking a timely question: what does preventing drug-related interpersonal violence look like through a public health lens?

Focusing on Ireland, we explore what the evidence tells us about how this violence occurs, how different types of violence can be understood, and how frameworks like the WHO ecological model can inform prevention. Crucially, we look at ways Ireland could reimagine prevention strategies that reduce harm — without defaulting to criminalisation.

If we want safer communities, it may be time to think beyond punishment and invest more seriously in prevention.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395926000083

Latest UK HIV statistics are out.

The UK Health Security Agency’s 2024 report shows progress, but also persistent challenges:
⚠️ 42% of new HIV diagnoses were late diagnoses. This is linked to a 10-fold higher risk of death in the first year after diagnosis.

✅ On the positive side, opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments is working, PrEP uptake is rising, and overall new HIV diagnoses are decreasing.

❗However, serious disparities remain: among people at high risk, Black and ethnically minoritised groups are accessing PrEP at much lower rates than white people.

📖 Read full summary and expert commentary

HIV i-Base Easy to read HIV treatment guides based on the latest guidelines, HIV treatment Q and A service, reports on the latest HIV research.

According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency annual Global Trends Report, there were 122.1 million forcibly displaced people by the end of April 2025, up from 120 million at the same time last year, representing around a decade of year-on-year increases in the number of refugees and others forced to flee their homes. The main drivers of displacement remain large conflicts like Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, and the continued failure to stop the fighting.
Forcibly displaced people include people displaced within their own country by conflict, which grew sharply by 6.3 million to 73.5 million at the end of 2024, and refugees fleeing their countries (42.7 million people). Sudan became the world’s largest forced displacement situation with 14.3 million refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), replacing Syria (13.5 million), and followed by Afghanistan (10.3 million) and Ukraine (8.8 million).
The report found that, contrary to widespread perceptions in wealthier regions, 67 per cent of refugees stay in neighbouring countries, with low and middle-income countries hosting 73 per cent of the world’s refugees. Indeed, 60 per cent of people forced to flee never leave their own country.

Global Trends | UNHCR UNHCR’s Global Trends report provides the official global figures on the number of refugees, IDPs, stateless people and returns. View the latest report and data.

What are the main drug-related threats today? Which substances are causing the most concern? How are countries responding to Europe’s evolving drug issues? Find out more in the European Drug Report 2025: Trends and Developments.
As the drug landscape continues to evolve, this new report provides valuable insights into current challenges and future risks. Drawing on data from 29 countries (the EU's 27 member states, Turkey and Norway), the report examines long-term trends and emerging threats. Its comprehensive analysis covers drug use and supply, as well as drug-related harms and how they are addressed.

📖 Explore the full report: euda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report/2025_en