The Harm Reduction International Conference 2025 (HR25) in Bogotá, Colombia was our most ambitious conference yet.

• 1,300+ attendees from 60+ countries
• 80+ sessions with 250+ speakers
• 1,100+ abstracts received and 80+ scholarships awarded
• 423.6% increase in Instagram followers during conference week
• First-ever national TV livestream of a harm reduction conference (RTVC, Colombia)
• Journalists from The Lancet, The Guardian, The Economist and The Telegraph in attendance

Our flagship campaign calls on governments to move money from punitive drug policy into harm reduction and community health. In 2025:

• Published 2 reports on aid spent on drug enforcement and 6 case studies proving the Divest/Invest model works
• Launched a new bilingual campaign website
• Drove country-level wins in Indonesia, South Africa and Kenya, including new funding commitments and legal reforms
• Contributed to a 50%+ increase in Global Fund financing for needle and syringe programmes
• Helped secure harm reduction’s first-ever mention in a UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs resolution
• Supported a 21% rise in philanthropic HIV funding for people who use drugs

HRI connects the dots between the local and the global.

Highlights from 2025 include:

• Australia — contributed to a parliamentary inquiry framing the death penalty as a tool of drug control
• Mauritius — secured harm reduction’s place on the national human rights agenda via a UN submission
• Ukraine — connected prison-rights advocates with a UN working group on detainee transfers
• ASEAN region — opened new dialogue on drug policy within the regional human rights body