Andria E-Mordaunt Woman of substance
In Vancouver this year, 100 delegates from the International
Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm gathered to hold their own
International Users’ Congress. I co-chaired this event with Stijn Goosens
from Antwerp.
The group is not only about blood-borne diseases but about having a network
run by and for users who know their human rights cannot be truly respected
and upheld while they are continually criminalised across the planet.
We decided it was way past time we organised internationally in the same way
as the International Community of Women Living with HIV and the Global Network
of People Living with HIV and Aids.
A UNAIDS representative in Vancouver told us our group should be properly
financed even though there is still resistance to funding groups involving
drug users. Of course, the accountability of any organisation is essential.
But it is a fact that drug users have run organisations around the world for
years and proved themselves as trustworthy as anyone else.
Despite the lack of funding at this stage, the International Users’
Congress formed a skeleton organisation with the working title of the International
Network of People who Use Illegal Drugs. Yep, I know it’s a mouthful
and not that snappy but I fervently hope it develops into the International
Network of Drug Users, INDU for short. Anyway, what mattered most was that
we pulled off this historic event and produced the following declaration:
“We are human beings who use drugs. For this, we have been marginalised
and discriminated against. We have been killed, put in jail, depicted as evil,
and stereotyped as dangerous and disposable. We are forming an international
network to:
•
Enable and empower people who use legal drugs, and those deemed illegal, to
survive and have meaningful input into all decisions that affect our lives.
• Promote better understanding of the experiences of people who use
illegal drugs, particularly the destructive impact of current drug policies,
which affect all citizens, not just us.
• Use our own skills and knowledge to train others, particularly peers,
but also other fellow citizens concerned with drugs in their communities.
• Advocate for universal access to all the tools available to reduce
the harm that people who use drugs face in their day-to-day lives.
• Enable access to regulated pharmaceutical quality drugs, safer consumption
equipment including syringes and pipes as well as facilities for their safe
disposal, peer outreach and honest,
up-to-date information about drugs and their uses and safe consumption facilities.
• Establish our right to evidence-based information about drugs, and
how to protect one another against potential negative impacts of drug use
through universal access to equitable and comprehensive health and social
care; affordable, supportive housing and employment opportunities.
• Provide support to established networks of people living with HIV
and Aids and/or hepatitis around the world, making sure active drug users
are included at every level of decision making and fairly reimbursed for our
time.
• To challenge national legislation and international conventions which
currently disable many of us from living safe, secure and healthy lives.
We also strive to:
• Support the development of user organisations in communities and countries
where there are none.
• Promote tolerance, cooperation and collaboration, fostering a culture
of inclusion and active participation.
• Maximise inclusion with special focus on those disproportionately
vulnerable to oppression on the basis of their sexual orientation, ethnicity
and socio-economic status.
• Ensure people who use drugs are not incarcerated and that those who
are have an equal right to healthy and respectful conditions, including drug
treatment equal to that they would receive while free.
• To challenge execution and other inhumane treatment of people who
use drugs worldwide.
Ultimately, the need to establish such a network arises out of the fact that
no group of oppressed people ever attained liberation without the involvement
of those directly affected. Through collective action, we will fight to change
existing local, national and international drug laws, and formulate evidence-based
drug policy that respects people’s human rights and dignity instead
of one fuelled on moralism, stereotypes and lies.
We are now seeking signatories so please send these to andria3a@yahoo.co.uk,
including your name, your organisation and the country where you are based.
