Mister President, 

On behalf of the co-signing organisations, we welcome the Council’s renewed attention to the issue of the realization of human rights in sustaining and increasing the gains made in the HIV response and leaving no one behind. 

People who use drugs continue to be criminalised worldwide, with many of them being subjected to harassment, imprisonment, and torture. This punitive approach to drugs does not only harm people who use drugs but has also negatively affected their families and societies, and put avoidable pressure on health, welfare, and criminal justice systems. 

In the face of this dire situation, there is clear evidence that harm reduction works, is cost- effective and has been endorsed by the entire UN system through its common position supporting the implementation of the international drug control policy. 

The panel touches upon an important topic of the need to close the HIV/AIDS resource gap to reach the target of ending AIDS by 2030. In low- and middle-income countries, the situation is dire, where only 0.7% of HIV funding goes towards harm reduction. On top of that, the recent US government funding pause has severely impacted the implementation of harm reduction globally. 

We call on the member states, international donors and relevant UN agencies to coordinate responses to ensure the continuation of services for people who use drugs, including in prisons and other custodial settings, and to make substantial additional investments to address those needs. 

We further call on the member states to increase their domestic investment in harm reduction and protect resilient and sustainable community-led harm reduction programmes as part of national health systems. 

Co-signatories: 

• Harm Reduction International 
• HAYAT, Malaysia 
• Skoun, Lebanon 
• IDPC 
• Unmode 
• European Prison Litigation Network 
• MENAHRA
• Health through Walls Inc.
• Amnesty International 
• Justice Health Group, Australia 
• Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) 
• Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat (LBHM) 
• International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)