ID: HR19-887

Presenting author: Magdalena Dabkowska

Presenting author biography:

Magdalena Dabkowska - drug policy and human rights advocate. She has been affiliated with the Global Drug Policy Program of the Open Society Foundations for the last ten years (currently as a consultant) and with other Polish and international NGOs (i.e. Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and AFEW International).

Shrinking space for civil society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia - how does it affect harm reduction and drug policy organizations?

Magdalena Dabkowska, Janine Wildschut

A number of international and regional human rights and civic freedoms studies and overviews warn that the space for civil societies in Eastern and Central Europe as well as in Central Asia is shrinking. While the phenomenon affects organizations from a wide range of thematic areas, its consequences for drug policy and harm reduction field might be exceptionally severe.

In many countries of the region, HIV prevention, harm reduction services and efforts to reform harmful drug policies are almost entirely performed by civil society groups and organizations. Dealing with difficult, unpopular and stigmatized issues, they have already operated in an unfavorable situation, often lacking any kind of social prestige and adequate funding. The tendency of governments in the region to exercise more control over civil society (i.e. the Foreign Agents Law in Russia) impose additional burden on harm reduction providers and advocates. Difficulties or even threats emerging from the current declining civil and political freedoms pushed organizations that are active in drugs-related fields to develop a wide range of new strategies to sustain and serve the needs of key populations.

Presentation would describe examples of different strategies and explore their advantages and disadvantages. It would build upon findings of an assessment conducted in 2017 together with AFEW International to examine the extent to which shrinking space for civil society threatens the effectiveness of the response to drug use and related public health issues. The outcome report "We Fight, We Hide or We Unite: Coping strategies amongst resilient harm reduction organizations and community networks in the context of shrinking space for civil society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia" authored by Janine Wildschut and Magdalena Dąbkowska was published earlier this year.