{"id":84928,"date":"2025-04-30T17:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dejusticia.org\/?p=84928"},"modified":"2025-04-30T17:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:35:10","slug":"harm-reduction-international-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.dejusticia.org\/en\/harm-reduction-international-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"The Harm Reduction International Conference has come to an end: what happens next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty-five years since the first International Harm Reduction Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in April 2025 we as a global collective of front-line health workers, academics, advocates, policy-makers, politicians, UN representatives, people who use drugs, sex workers and people working in the criminal legal justice system, gathered in Bogota, Colombia to build momentum towards a more just, fair and rights-based drug policy architecture that protects lives and restores dignity for all. Over four days, we platformed thought leaders, amplified advocacy for change and shone a light on local innovations in harm reduction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s conference theme \u2018Sowing Change to Harvest Justice\u2019 draws inspiration from Colombia\u2019s efforts to reform drug policy and from the region\u2019s shift towards addressing drug-related issues through public health, social justice, and environmental sustainability. HR25 spotlighted the ways in which prohibitionist drug policies drive and are derived from racism, patriarchy and colonial control, whilst elevating Global South leadership and the decolonization of drug policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s courage in speaking out against a drug policy system that engenders violence and harm has created a fracture in the once seemingly intractable prohibitionist agenda. This, along with its efforts coordinating a coalition of member states and civil society organizations that are pushing for a review of the international drug control regime<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, has created the conditions for change. On 14<\/span>th<\/span> March 2025, Colombia and its allies secured the adoption of an unprecedented resolution at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), initiating the first ever independent external review of the international drug control system. The Independent Expert Panel is tasked with developing a set of recommendations to enhance treaty implementation and international obligations of relevance for drug policy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Delegates of HR25, and as part of a global community of harm reduction and drug policy reform advocates and practitioners and of communities most impacted by punitive drug policies:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n