UNGASS: Women who use Drugs in Focus

Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) is a global platform to reduce harms for women who use drugs and to develop an enabling environment for the implementation and expansion of harm reduction resources for women.

UNGASS: A missed opportunity? Drug use is not an end in itself, but a means towards the more important core objectives of the UN: respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, peace and development (UNDP 2015 cited in Hallan 2016 IDPC Briefing Paper)

UNGASS Outcome Document

UNGASS Outcome Document: Latest Draft

“Many of the vulnerabilities experienced by women who use drugs illicitly are a compound of those that are experienced by women in general, in addition to those faced by all people who use illegal drugs. Culturally embedded power imbalances that exist between men and women around the world often leave women exposed to increased stigma, abuse, violence and coercion” ( The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, 2011: 3)3 Women who use Drugs

Drug Control and Women’s Rights WHRIN- OHCHR submission to the 30 th session of the Human Rights Council (Resolution A/HRC/28/L.22) in regards to the special session of the UN General Assembly on the world drug problem (UNGASS) 2016 Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health Right to Life and Security of Person Right to Live Free from Violence Right to Bodily Integrity Right to be Free from Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family or Home Right to Non-Discrimination Right to be free from Arbitrary Arrest or Detention Right to Protection of Rule of Law /Self Determination

Gender-Based Violence and Women who use Drugs Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a serious public health threat and human rights violations that disproportionately affects women and girls who inject drugs The term GBV includes prevalent forms of violence experienced by women and girls who use drugs. These include: -  intimate partner violence  non-partner sexual assault  trafficking  structural violence from police, prison guards and custodial care (UN General Assembly. Declaration on the Elimiation of Violence against Women 1993)

Intimate Partner Violence and Women who use Drugs WHO (2013) estimates that more than 30% of women and girls worldwide experience intimate partner violence

GENERAL POPULATIONWOMEN WHO USE DRUGS Intimate Partner Violence and Women who use Drugs (Gilbert et al. 2015)

International Human Rights Day: a call to end violence against women who use drugs “ Rather than pursue a clear case of domestic violence, he chose to search me for drugs. It only took those two little words of ‘drug user’ for the police officer to see me not as a victim of domestic violence, but as a woman not deserving of equal protection under the law….a broken system which treats women who use drugs as undeserving of the same rights as other women.” (INPUD Virtual Consultation, 2015)

Drug Policy: From the Macro – to – Micro “ My former partner experienced drug induced psychosis and became very violent. He threatened me with a knife and said he was going to kill me. I was unable to call the police because there were drugs in the house. I knew we would both be criminalised for being drug users, rather than the police supporting me in taking action against a violent partner ” (Anonymous, 2015) “ As a 'drug user' you are offered no protection from the local police who 'have better things to do ’” (Anonymous, 2015) “Our system perpetuates the violence and prevents the healing; criminalization is violent and the harm of not being able to climb up out of it is violent” (Anonymous, 2015)

Stigma and Discrimination  Limited employment prospects and life chances  Reduced standards of social welfare  Restricted access to healthcare

Women who use Drugs in Afghanistan No one rents us houses. People hate us. No one wants to marry with our daughters ( WUD, Kabul Afghanistan, 2015) We do not even have a cemetery. People don't allow us to bury our dead, or those of our family members ( WUD, Kabul Afghanistan, 2015)

United Nations General Assembly resolution 70/1, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (2030 Agenda), and its Sustainable Development Goals, in which Member States resolved to protect human rights and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls Human Rights Standards

Thank you International Network of Women who use Drugs