The individual campaigns led by women who use drugs from all regions, converge into this energetic and engaging call for equal access to health and human rights. In addition, this film summary of some of the campaign actions was launched on International Drug User’s Day 1st November.
Read the global activity round up…
WHRIN is a global platform to expand harm reduction approaches for women. The vision of WHRIN is that all self-identified women who use drugs have unfettered access to available, quality, relevant health, social and legal services in a context of upholding human rights without stigma, discrimination or criminalization.
Visit the site: https://whrin.site/
This living report details the various global responses of organisations providing harm reduction and auxiliary services to women who use drugs. Responses to COVID restrictions for WUD have been mapped and are presented here.
Throughout the world, people who inject drugs experience stigmatization, vulnerability, marginalization and higher risk of acquiring HIV. The situation is even worse for women who inject drugs as detailed in this Policy Brief. In addition to highlighting the importance for services specifically responding to the needs of women who inject drugs, the companion…
The brief highlights the intersections between age, gender, and drug use, making the case for why young women who use drugs are particularly at risk of HIV transmission and not adequately reached through mainstream health services. The brief also offers some recommendations for how our HIV response can better meet the needs of young women affected by HIV and drug use.
From South Africa to Myanmar, from Brazil to Kyrgyzstan, women are resisting the war on drugs. Killings, criminalization, incarceration, denial of medical care, and social stigma are just a few of the effects the war on drugs has had on communities around the world. It targets particular groups, with gender-specific impacts. The war on drugs is clearly a feminist issue. Yet the effects of repressive drug policies on women, trans and gender…
From South Africa to Myanmar, from Brazil to Kyrgyzstan, women are resisting the war on drugs. Killings, criminalization, incarceration, denial of medical care, and social stigma are just a few of the effects the war on drugs has had on communities around the world. It targets particular groups, with gender-specific impacts. For example, the long history of the medical establishment’s sexist and abusive treatment of women provides a strong…
Incorporating gender analysis into the rapidly developing scholarship on drug use, drug trade, drug science, drug treatment, and drug policy in the United States, the special issue showcases articles that are part of a vibrant body of historical, sociological, and anthropological scholarship. The differential effects of drug policy are explored, focusing on how gender – in dynamic relationship to race, class, and sexuality – is integral to…
Misinformation, stigma and discrimination contribute to the promotion of ideas that any type of drug use during pregnancy will result in harm to the foetus. Criminalisation, stigma and discrimination associated with illicit drug use during pregnancy also results in many women keeping their pregnancy concealed and prevents them from accessing a range of services, such as antenatal care, harm reduction services including voluntary drug…
Intersectionality refers to the ways in which different aspects of a person’s identity can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalization. The concept is useful for understanding and addressing inequities experienced by women who use drugs.
Also available in Russian, Indonesian and Ukrainian
The mantra ‘Nothing about us without us’ speaks to the imperative of HIV service providers considering the needs of those served. Despite the increased risk of women who use drugs acquiring a blood borne virus and experiences of state and social forms of gender-based violence, there is a distinct lack of women focused harm reduction services. This interview highlights how the use of feminist theory frameworks with art and story telling…
The meaningful involvement of the Women’s Advisory Group has been critical in increasing the active participation of women who use drugs in harm reduction services in MdMs harm reduction programming in Myanmar. This interview highlights the strategies used by the group and the rationale driving their activities and ambitions.
Women and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately impacted by law enforcement in the context of punitive and prohibitionist drug policy. In addition to their over representation in global incarceration rates, women who use drugs experience forms of violence including penalisation for drug use in pregnancy and parenthood, extortion and sexual and physical abuse by law enforcement officials and, in the extreme extra judicial…
Young women and girls who are affected by punitive drug policy face unique age-related as well as gender-specific risks, barriers and rights violations that are not well recognized or responded to by policymakers or service providers. Parental consent combined with minimum age restrictions to medical treatment as well as harm reduction services create access barriers for this cohort. This article examines these issues to highlight the…
Addressing gender inequality as a structural impediment to preventing HIV and mitigating its impact on women and girls is widely recognized, including strong commitments made in the UN General Assembly “Political declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending inequalities and getting on track to end AIDS by 2030”. Yet, less is known about financial investments to advance gender equality in the HIV response to implement those commitments.In 2019, UN Women,…
Interview research in Kisarawe, Tanzania has found that heterosexual, serodiscordant couples (where one partner has HIV and the other does not) tend to make joint decisions about HIV prevention and treatment, suggesting that pairs often make decisions about HIV-prevention together and that working with both partners could increase PrEP and ART access.
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In commemoration of the International Day of Action for Women's Health, Nazneen Damji, Senior Global Policy Advisor for Gender Equality, HIV, and Health at UN Women, responds to issues concerning the health challenges women face in 2021, and how a gender equal world can look going forward.
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This year, the International Day of Action for Women's Health highlights the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s right to sexual and reproductive health. Åsa Regnér, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Programme Results at UN Women, addresses the negative impact which COVID-19 has had on women’s health, and the role which UN Women’s Generation…
2.2 million Mozambicans are living with HIV, the second-highest number of people living with HIV in the world after South Africa. Every hour in Mozambique, four adolescent girls or young women acquire HIV. The pandemic and the conflict in Cabo Delgado have knocked back the life-saving and life-changing progress that had been made in Mozambique towards overcoming HIV and AIDS. But there is hope.
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Global Citizen spoke to five members of the Generation Equality Forum Youth Task Force about what they hope to bring to the Generation Equality Forum, the gender equality issues they care about most, and how they would like to see young people stand up to achieve gender equality in our lifetime.
Read the full article here.…
