View or download a PDF of the report in English, Russian or Romanian

Moldova stands out in its implementation of harm reduction services in prisons. It is one of just a handful of countries around the world that provides sterile needles and syringes and opioid agonist therapy (OAT), along with other key interventions for preventing the transmission of blood-borne viruses.

This report summarises the state of health and human rights in prisons in Moldova, it draws on desk review, analysis and qualitative research to provide new insights into the challenges associated with ensuring health and harm reduction services meet international human rights standards. It takes into account the impact of COVID-19 and considers the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health and harm reduction services.

The voices of men and women in prison, people who use drugs and people working in prisons are central to this research and shed light on their experiences and challenges. The report draws upon the International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy and Harm Reduction International’s monitoring tool for HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), TB and harm reduction in prisons. These findings can be used to inform future planning, programming and budgeting, both nationally and internationally.

The report is accompanied by three working papers, on:

1 – The policy and regulatory framework for harm reduction in prisons in Moldova;

2 – A global literature review on availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of harm reduction in prisons; and

3 – The research results on the qualitative study on availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of harm reduction services in prisons in Moldova.