Programme for Conference 2015

Harm Reduction International is delighted to present this year’s conference programme.

This year’s conference theme is ‘Call for Leadership’ and reflects the urgent need to address critical issues faced by the harm reduction response.

With delegates from over 70 nations set to take part in this 4 day conference, the programme reflects not only the truly global nature of movement but also addresses key international issues.

Carefully selected from one of the highest levels of submissions, done via a global call for papers, our international Programme Committee is pleased to confirm the programme for HR 2015.

Making a new departure, the agenda will encompass, high profile main plenaries, research, panel discussions dialogue space sessions, workshops and films as a basis for further dialogue.

Programme

Sunday October 18 2015
- 3:30PM - 5:30PM
  - Opening Ceremony
    
    Location: Taming Sari
    Chairs: Rick Lines, Harm Reduction International and Datuk Raj Karim, President of the Malaysian AIDS Council
    
    Speakers:
    YB Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam, The Honourable Minister of Health Malaysia
    Anand Grover, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
    Maria Phelan, Harm Reduction International
    Mahd Razali Bin Ayub, WARDU/ANPUD
    
    Presentation of the Carol and Travis Jenkins Award
    Presentation of the International and National Rolleston Awards
Monday October 19 2015
- 9:00AM - 10:30AM
  - Plenary 1: Leadership in Transition
    
    Location: PLENARY ROOM
    Chair: Daniel Wolfe
    
    This session will discuss the retreat of international donor support from harm reduction and the challenges of transitioning to sustainable national-level financing
    
    Marijke Wijnroks, Chief of Staff, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
    Lambert Grijns, Ambassador for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights & HIV/AIDS of the Netherlands
    Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman, Ministry of Health, Malaysia
    Pascal Tanguay, Law Enforcement and HIV/AIDS Network
- 10:30AM - 11:30AM
  - Dialogue Space: Launch: Special Issue of the Harm Reduction Journal
    Speaker(s):
    Alex Wodak (President, Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation)
    
    Jimmy Dorabjee (Asian Network of People Who Use Drugs)
    
    Ian Caswell (BioMed Central)
    
    Description:
    Please join us for the launch of a special issue of the Harm Reduction Journal, entirely dedicated to the state of harm reduction in Asia.
- 11:00AM - 12:30PM
  - Major 11: Challenges and solutions in the funding crisis for harm reduction
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Adrian Gschwend
    
    10% by 2020: a global campaign to redirect resources from the war on drugs to harm reduction
    Olga Szubert, Murphy, Fionnuala; Phelan, Maria
    
    Critical engagement with donors to secure investment in harm reduction in middle income countries (MICs)
    Alysa Remtulla
    
    Harnessing harm reduction: Community Action on Harm Reduction Programme (CAHR) review in Malaysia
    Malini Sivapragasam; Ellan, Parimelazhagan
    
    Lessons learned from 5+ years of harm reduction service delivery in Thailand
    Pascal Tanguay; Ngamee, Veeraphan
  - Major 12: Ending the death penalty for drug offences
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Rick Lines
    
    This session brings together leading lawyers and human rights advocates to discuss current efforts to end the death penalty for drug offences in four key death penalty States: China, Indonesia, India and Malaysia
    
    Tripti Tandon, Deputy Director, Lawyer’s Collective (India) Ricky Gunawan, Program Director, LBH Masyarakat (Indonesia) Dr Yingxi Bi, (China) Shamini Darshni, Executive Director, Amnesty International Malaysia
  - Major 13: Major 13: HCV: Prevention and risks
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Karyn Kaplan
    
    ‘Treatment as prevention’ for hepatitis C: addressing the needs of people who inject drugs?
    Magdalena Rose Harris; Albers, Eliot; Swan, Tracy
    
    Hepatitis C prevention and convenience: why do people who inject drugs in sexual partnerships ‘run out’ of sterile equipment?
    Suzanne Fraser; Rance, Jake; Treloar, Carla Impact of Opioid Substitution Therapy and Needle
    
    Syringe Programmes on incidence of HCV: a systematic review and meta- analysis
    Lucy Platt; Reed, Jennifer; Minozzi, Silvia; Vickerman, Peter; French, Clare; Hagan, Holly; Maher, Lisa; Jordan, Ashly; Hickman, Matthew
    
    Screening of viral hepatitis among tuberculosis patients
    Surendra Khadka; Bista, Bikram
- 11:30AM - 12:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Reaching the Underserved: Harm Reduction Services for Young People who Use Drugs in Ukraine
    Speaker(s):
    Vyacheslav Kushakov (International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Ukraine)
    
    Description:
    In Ukraine, the HIV epidemic is increasingly affecting young people. There is evidence that a large proportion (65%) of all HIV infections among boys aged 15 to 19 are directly associated with injecting drug use. Yet HIV-related policies and existing harm reduction services consistently overlook the harm reduction needs of the youngest segments of drug using populations, those aged 10 to 18. Since there are significant differences between younger and older PWID, harm reduction services need to employ substantially different and targeted outreach strategies, service combinations and service delivery mechanisms in order to address the needs of young PWUD/ PWID.
    
    During this dialogue space, we will present the first conscious effort to target young people who use drugs with essential harm reduction services in Ukraine. We will share models of harm reduction service delivery for young PWUD and advocacy tools for the scale up of interventions at the country level.
- 12:30PM - 1:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Dead Space, Blood Volume, and BBV Risk
    Speaker(s):
    Dr. William Zule (RTI International)
    
    Description:
    Bill Zule has been at the forefront of moves to understand the importance of blood volume in used injecting equipment as a potential driver of blood borne virus epidemics.
    
    In this dialogue space session Bill will describe how his understanding of this issue has developed, the evidence for the differences in risk between injecting equipment types, and the next steps for translating this knowledge into practice and optimising its impact on HIV and HCV prevention. There will be an opportunity to explore the language used to describe injecting equipment, the issues that arise when discussing dead space with injecting drug users, and practical issues that might affect local implementation.
- 1:30PM - 2:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Women Who Use Drugs
    Speaker(s):
    Session 1 speakers:
    Monica Beg (UNODC)
    Ruth Birgin (INPUD)
    
    Session 2 speakers:
    Judy Chang (WHRIN)
    Judy Mungai (INPUD)
    Zoe Dodd (South Riverdale Community Health Centre)
    Ruth Birgin (INPUD)
    
    Description:
    1. Launch of the UNODC Practical guide for service providers on gender-responsive HIV services for women who inject drugs.
    
    Harm reduction programmes are often not sufficiently accessible to women who inject drugs and not able to respond to their specific needs.
    
    The purpose of this new guide is to:
    
    - assist harm reduction service providers to expand the access to services to women who inject drugs through appropriate gender-sensitive and gender- specific services
    
    - support harm reduction service providers to address gender issues within existing services and/or develop gender specific services
    
    - offer advice on setting targets for scale-up access to comprehensive HIV services and expand coverage
    
    A working group consisting of the International Network of Women Who Use Drugs (INWUD), the Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN), and the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) provided oversight with UNODC in the development of the guide.
    
    2. Women who Use Drugs as Activists and Advocates - the challenges and solutions (Interactive)
    
    This session will discuss the particular challenges and barriers that women who use drugs face in the harm reduction and drug policy reform movement. Women who use drugs face double stigmatization and more oppressive social and ‘moral’ norms, often presenting barriers for engaging in advocacy. How can women who use drugs overcome these challenges, and create and maintain an active voice in drug policy reform and harm reduction movements?
    
    Policies, programming and services remain weighted towards men, and are gender- blind. These critical gaps can be bridged, by ensuring the participation of women who use drugs. Currently the presence of women in drug policy, and harm reduction advocacy remains overshadowed by men. How can women who use drugs challenge the status quo in male-dominated spaces of harm reduction and drug policy reform? Further to this, are there opportunities to embrace the intersectionalities between gender and drug use, race and/or ethnicity, sexuality and trans movements?
    
    This interactive session will explore these issues. Four women who use drugs will discuss their personal experiences and provide a sound basis for discussion and debate on the synergies for future action.
- 2:00PM - 3:30PM
  - Parallel 11: HCV: Treatment
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: TBC
    
    WHO global and regional action on hepatitis treatment: implications for people who use and inject drugs
    Nick Walsh; Lo, Ying-Ru; Verster, Annette
    
    From silence to elimination: making Hepatitis C a national priority in Georgia
    Paata Sabelashvili
    
    Meaningful involvement of people who inject drugs in hepatitis C advocacy in Indonesia
    Suhendro Sugiharto; Agustian, Edo;
    
    What people know about Hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals: Narratives from a cohort of people who inject drugs in Melbourne
    Peter Higgs; Cogger, Shelley; Hsieh, Kevin; Hellard, Margaret
  - Parallel 12: The Global Fund new funding model challenges: what this means for harm reduction
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Valentin Simionov
    
    Global Fund investments in harm reduction through the rounds- based funding model (2002–2014)
    Susie McLean, Bridge, Jamie; Hunter, Benjamin M.
    
    Seeking solutions for danger of The Global Fund withdrawal from the Balkan countries
    Samir Ibisevic; Bakh, Uliana
    
    Scaling up harm reduction in Asia: entry points for PWID and HR NGOs in development of GF concept notes
    Dave Burrows; McCallum, Louis
    
    Financial tools for HIV prevention and harm reduction advocacy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Cathy Barker; Kriauzaite, Nora; Ocheret, Dasha; Votyagov, Sergey
  - Parallel 13: Punitive laws and law enforcement
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Greg Denham
    
    Impact of drug laws and policies on harm reduction in Cambodia
    Sou Sochenda; Sovannary, Tuot; Tola, Chan; Mony, Srey; Golichenko, Olga; Pheak, Chhoun; Satya, Chhim; Siyan, Yi; Sopheap, Oum
    
    Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD): programme effects on recidivism outcomes
    Susan E. Collins; Clifasefi, Seema L.; Lonczak, Heather S.
    
    ‘Policy Surveillance’ for tracking, evaluating and advancing harm reduction policy
    Scott C Burris
    
    Bridging harm reduction and law enforcement closer together to help build sustainable partnerships
    Anan Pun; Karmacharya, Ujjwal; Chapagain, Deepak; Gurung, Birodh
  - Parallel 14: NPS: Challenges for policy makers and service providers
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 1
    Chair: Eberhard Schatz
    
    Implementation of effective harm reduction responses - challenges for community and service providers
    Katrin Schiffer
    
    Is the recent emergence of Mephedrone injection in the United Kingdom associated with elevated risks and infection levels?
    Vivian D Hope; Cullen, Katelyn J; Parry, John V; Ncube, Fortune
    
    NPS in Europe - political response in the EU
    José Queiroz Barbosa; Costa, Ana Correia
    
    Double epidemic in the Russian Federation
    Marina Akulova; Kornilova, Marina
  - Parallel 15: Children, young people and injecting drug use
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 2
    Chair: Tetiana Deshko
    
    Place of harm reduction and rehabilitation programmes in work with underage drug users
    Anastasiya Shebardina
    
    The social context of non- medical prescription opioid use among young adults: a qualitative study
    Jesse L.Yedinak; Kinnard, Elizabeth N.; Hadland, Scott E.; Green, Traci C.; Clark, Melissa A.; Marshall, Brandon D.L.
    
    ‘We don’t need services. We have no problems’: exploring the experiences of young people who inject drugs in accessing harm reduction services
    Anita Krug; Hildebrand, Mikaela
    
    ‘Intravention’: young drug injectors’ leadership in promoting health-protective behaviours among their peers
    Pedro Mateu-Gelabert; Guarino, Honoria; Jessell, Lauren; Syckes, Cassandra; Friedman, Samuel R.
  - Parallel 16: Grass roots advocacy in harm reduction
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 1
    Chair: John-Peter Kools
    
    ‘Let’s do it together’- engaging with local communities for better acceptance of Needle/Syringe Programmes
    Linn Tun; ThweKo, Nyein; Thaw,
    
    Kicking the door open with the first substance analysis programme in Mexico
    Brun Gonzalez
    
    The role of parental activism in advocacy of expanding access and improving the quality of OST programmes, Ukraine
    Svitlana Tkalya
    
    Advocating for an increase in harm reduction services and promotion of human rights, impacts and decrease violation for PWUD
    Amin Zemaray; Alami, Sohail
    
    Peer paralegal a breakthrough in a legal assistance
    Edo Agustian; Sugiharto, Suhendro; Nurdiana, Ferry
  - Workshop: How to Integrate Methamphetamine Harm Reduction Approaches into Routine Harm Reduction Services
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 2 Workshop (Upper Level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Seyed Ramin Radfar (Thought, Culture and Health Institute)
    
    Description:
    This workshop will explore the various methamphetamine harm reduction experiences around the world, including the development, implementation and results of a pilot methamphetamine harm reduction programme in Iran. The objectives of the workshop are to:
    
    1. Understand the epidemiology of methamphetamine
    2. Identify the differences and similarities of methamphetamine harm reduction and opioid harm reduction activities
    3. Learn about one of the very few experiences in the world regarding methamphetamine harm reduction integration into regular harm reduction services
    
    Format: Short presentations, group work and plenary discussion. Participants will be asked to break into small groups to discuss and share their findings on the similarities and differences between methamphetamine and opioid- related harms and harm reduction services. Evaluation of the workshop will be undertaken through short pre- and post-tests.
  - Workshop: Adapting Harm Reduction Programmes for People Who Use Stimulants
    
    Location: Sri Pangalima 2 Workshop (Upper Level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Hang Lai (Supporting Community Development Initiatives)
    Sarah Evans (Open Society Foundations)
    Kailin See (Drug User Resource Centre)
    
    Description:
    Objective: Harm reduction to date has largely focused on opiate injection. However, the use of smoked stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, and derivatives like crack and basuco) is increasing in many localities. Smoked stimulant use is associated with risky sex and other drug use, HIV, Hep C, and mental health issues. At the same time, the very fact that stimulant users are not (yet) injecting drugs means that timely harm reduction programming is critical and the opportunities many. In reality, however, few effective, evidence-based interventions exist for stimulant users (and data is sorely lacking).
    
    The default response in many parts of the world is a police crackdown on users, followed by compulsory ‘treatment’ or jail – even when no obvious crime has been committed or the user does not want or need treatment. Today, the biggest contributor to injury and death among stimulant users is violence connected to the drug market, and at the hands of police. Community-based programmes struggle to connect with stimulant users, whose needs and behaviors seem different from those of people who use opiates. Harm reduction tools for stimulants users (sterile crack smoking kits, supervised inhalation sites) are often an afterthought to methadone and needle and syringe programmes, and remain controversial long after programmes for people who use opiates have been accepted.
    
    Format: Using short presentations, group activities, and plenary discussion, three dynamic facilitators from around the world will share strategies and approaches for including stimulant users in harm reduction programming.
- 2:30PM - 3:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Harm Reduction Beyond Injecting Drug Use
    Speaker(s):
    Adrian Gschwend (Swiss Federal Office of Public Health)
    
    René Akeret (Member of Swiss Federal Expert Commission on drugs)
    
    Description:
    Historically, harm reduction has been heroin-focused and driven by concern over the risks of injecting. However, drug use, including type of drugs used, patterns of use, and profiles of risk behavior, are typically evolving rather rapidly. According to EMCDDA data, in many Western European countries, heroin use has steadily declined since 2007. Concomitantly, heroin injecting appears to have decreased and use by other routes, notably inhalation and to a lesser extend sniffing, has become more and more popular. Further, new phenomena challenge the traditionally opiate-focused drug policies:
    
    - Excessive recreational substance abuse, especially in nightlife
    - Poly drug use, especially in combination with alcohol
    - New psychoactive substances (NPS), designer drugs, “legal highs”
    - Psychoactive pharmaceuticals, neuroenhancers, “brain doping”
    
    During this dialogue space we will explore the potential of harm reduction for addressing such new patterns of drug use. The focus is thus shifted away from survival-oriented interventions to safer use and reduction of health / social risks for recreational substance users. We will discuss these issues by introducing practices of harm reduction in the context of nightlife interventions in Switzerland. Participants of this dialogue space will discuss the extension of the harm reduction concept to the emerging trends in drug use drawing from experiences in their own countries.
- 3:30PM - 4:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Living the Decriminalisation: The Portuguese Experience
    Speaker(s):
    Rui Miguel Coimbra Morais (CASO, INPUD, EuroNPUD)
    
    Description:
    This dialogue will space will explore decriminalisation from the perspective of people who use drugs, illuminating both the benefits and the much less discussed problems. It will discuss outcomes in relation to stigmatisation and discrimination; the ambiguous effect of being medicalised; access to rights; and the opportunities for our community to be meaningfully involved in all aspects of our lives.
- 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  - Parallel 21: MSM, chemsex and community norms
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Maria Phelan
    
    Crystal methamphetamine use among gay and bisexual men in Australia: patterns of use and harm reduction responses
    Toby Lea; Hopwood, Max; Ryan, Dermot; Wright, Shannon; Holt, Martin; Aggleton, Peter
    
    Men Who Have Sex with Men in a highly stigmatizing environment: the case of greater Cairo, Egypt
    Sherif Mohamed Said Elkamhawi; Abaza, Oumnia; Khoury, Carla; Tawakol, Ghazal; Abdel Malak, Maryham; El-Beih, Wessam; Youssef, Hala; El-Kott, Nabeel; Sanan, Nehad; El-Kha
    
    Perceptions and experiences of injecting novel psychoactive substances in sexual settings among gay men in London
    Adam Bourne; Reid, David; Weatherburn, Peter; Torres-Rueda, Sergio
    
    Using peer education to work with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) drug users in NSW
    Shannon Wright; Ryan, Dermot; Parkhill, Nicolas
  - Parallel 22: Research: Neglected harms and issues
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Vlatko Dekov
    
    Harm reduction saves and improves lives: Findings of Increased quality-of-life for people who inject drugs in the Hridaya impact assessment study in selected Indian states
    Visvanathan Arumugam; Biswas, Kaushik; Sharma, G Charanjit; Beddoe, Simon W; Mehta, Sonal; Peters, Tim; Robertson, James
    
    Do different types of heroin produce different risks for developing abscesses and other skin and soft tissue infections?
    Dan Ciccarone; Unick, Jay; Mars, Sarah; Rosenblum, Dan
    
    Conceptualizing the hospital ‘risk environment’ for people who use drugs: challenges and potential solutions
    Lianping Ti; Milloy, M-J; Buxton, Jane; McNeil, Ryan; Dobrer, Sabina; Hayashi, Kanna; Wood, Evan; Kerr, Thomas
    
    Longitudinal analysis of individual harm reduction coverage in an Australian cohort of people who inject drugs
    Daniel John O’Keefe; Aitken, Campbell; Dietze, Paul Mark
  - Parallel 23: Critical issues in improving access to viral hepatitis B and C treatment for people who use drugs
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Susie McLean; Annette Verster
    
    This session will focus on improving access to viral hepatitis B and C treatment in people who use drugs.
    
    It will introduce the new WHO guidelines on HBV and HCV screening, care and treatment with specific focus on people who use drugs as well as the WHO global strategy and regional action plans on viral hepatitis and particular relevance for people who use drugs. Several key experts from a range of constituencies will respond and comment on the recommendations, their perspectives and experiences. The focus of this discussion is on critical issues and ways to address challenges with regard to providing hepatitis treatment to people who use drugs.
    
    Introduction on WHO guidance and strategies - Nick Walsh
    
    Civil society perspective:
    Treatment Action Group - Karyn Kaplan
    ANPUD - Anand Chabungbam
    International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine-
    Tetiana Deshko
    MSF - Leena Menghaney
    
    Donors perspective:
    The Global Fund - Mauro Guarinieri Open
    Society Foundations – Daniel Wolfe
    
    This session is supported by the World Health Organization
  - Parallel 24: Religious perspectives on harm reduction
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 1
    Chair: Steve Krauss
    
    Religious leaders and harm reduction in MENA
    Elie Georges Aaraj; Jreij/Abou Chrouch, Micheline Samir; Haddad, Rana Nour; Haddad, Patricia Joseph; Fakih, Hasan Sami
    
    Synthesis of Islam and harm reduction preconference
    Sawai Ustaz Zakuan
    
    Roles of religious affiliation and religiosity in reducing risks for HIV
    Stacey Shaw
  - Parallel 25: Next generation needle and syringe programming
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 2
    Chair: Ruth Birgin
    
    The challenges of outreach workers in the implementation of the Needle and Syringe Exchange programme in Malaysia
    Azlinda Azman;Karunanithy, Anushiya; Baba, Ismail; Ellan, Parimelazhagan; Sivapragasam, Malini
    
    Increasing syringe exchange 1,5 times in 4 years within the same budget? Evidence from Eastern Europe, Latvia
    Ruta Kaupe
    
    No one wants to use the dirties: people who inject drugs reflect upon re-use practices
    Angella Duvnjak; Morrison, Ele
    
    Experience from an interactive educational pilot programme aiming at behavioural changes among injecting drug users in Paris from 2011 to 2014: impact on risk practices and lessons learned
    Elisabeth Avril; Debrus, Marie; Rogissart, Valère; Maguet, Olivier; Corty, Jean- François
  - Parallel 26: Far from the stereotype: Drugs, sex work, and stigma
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 1
    Chair: Annie Madden
    
    Structural violence and vulnerability of women who inject drugs in Kenya
    James Ngerere Ndimbii; Andrew Guise, Syliva Ayon, Onemsus Kalama, Tim Rhodes
    
    Harm reduction & leadership: who wins and who loses when sex work and drug use are seen as inherently dangerous and damaging?
    Ryan Elizabeth Cole
    
    Sex work and law reform in Canada: what are the impacts on sex workers life?
    Alexandra de Kiewit; Caouette, Anna-Aude;
    
    Minds opened wide: nursing students community experience in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside
    Caroline Brunt; Fukuyama, Kathy; Arnold, Barb; Gilbert, Julie; Schappert, Janita
  - Workshop: Difficult Decision: A Toolkit for Care Workers Managing Ethical Dilemmas
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 2 Workshop (Upper Level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Jude Byrne (Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League)
    Jay Levy (INPUD)
    
    Description:
    This workshop--geared to anyone in a care or support role (including peer workers) and to managers--will orient participants to a new international tool for carers working with people who use drugs and other key populations. Carers face difficult decisions. The tool will help carers in community-based organisations make more ethical decisions when faced with competing choices or when the rights or interests of two people (perhaps parent and child) are in conflict.
    
    With proper guidance, carers can make more ethical decisions, ones not influenced by stigma about who has the ability or right to parent. Facilitators will share results from a global survey of care workers and their clients. Building on real-life ethical dilemmas, facilitators will then guide participants in the use of the guidance, including the four step tool that is at its heart, to develop understanding of how ethical decision-making differs from following the law, organisational policy, religion, culture or societal norms.
  - Workshop: New Psychoactive Substances Among People who Use Drugs Heavily – Towards Effective and Comprehensive Health Responses
    
    Location: Sri Pangalima 2 Workshop (Upper Level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Katrin Schiffer (Correlation Network)
    
    Description:
    New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are no longer limited to people experimenting with drugs. NPS use is increasing in populations of People who Use Drugs Heavily (PUDH). Social, health and harm reduction services across Europe are unprepared for the emerging use of NPS and lack the capacity and the tools to address this issue in an effective way. Capacity building and training is needed to increase the knowledge-base among professionals, peers and PUDH is needed to develop effective harm reduction strategies in this field.
    
    The workshop will provide an overview on the situation on NPS in general and describe the policy responses to the increasing use of NPS in Europe. The main part of the workshop will address challenges and potential approaches, which have been implemented in various European countries. The input is based on the interventions in 5 European countries. The implemented RAR methodology and the experiences will be shared and discussed with the participants.
    
    In the last part of the session, we will address the increasing role of the internet and describe and discuss potential online interventions.
- 4:30PM - 5:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Employing People Who Use Drugs in Harm Reduction Programmes
    Speaker(s):
    Mat Southwell (CoAct),
    Charan Sharma (Alliance India),
    Marina Braga (Alliance Ukraine)
    
    Description:
    The Guide to Employing People who Use Drugs in Harm Reduction was produced for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Community Action on Harm Reduction. It draws on the experience of CAHR partners and also other harm reduction organisations that have pioneered the employment of PWUD. The Guide gathers together experience and learning into a comprehensive resource for harm reduction services. It is designed to support managers and staff alike, to make their organisations welcoming and supportive workspaces for PWUD. The Guide recognises the important and valuable contribution that PWUD can make to harm reduction services. It also identifies human resources and personal development strategies that can help staff who use drugs to perform to their highest potential. The Guide recognises the additional challenges that PWUD may face in working in a context of discrimination and criminalisation and it identifies practical ways that organisations can support their staff and manage problems.
    
    Mat Southwell, the Guide’s author, will introduce and launch the Guide. Charan Sharma will describe his experience working for the Alliance India as a manager who uses drugs and draw out lessons. Three case studies of staff who use drugs will be discussed in small groups, helping people to practice using the Guide as a technical resource. The session will conclude with questions, discussion and answers. The session is presented by CoAct and the Alliance CAHR programme.
Tuesday October 20 2015
- 9:00AM - 10:30AM
  - Plenary 2: Leadership Communities
    
    Location: Taming Sari
    This session will highlight examples of community driven campaigns in support of harm reduction and human rights
    
    Chairs: Michel Kazatchkine and Eliot Ross Albers
    
    Speakers:
    Rajiv Kafle, Global Network of People Living with HIV
    Nukshinaro Ao, Asian Network of People who Use Drugs
    Jules Kim, The Scarlet Alliance
    Liz Evans, former director of INSITE in Vancouver
- 10:30AM - 11:30AM
  - Dialogue Space: The Harm Reduction Supplies Knowledge Hub wants your feedback!
    Speaker(s):
    Pierre de Vasson (Independent consultant in supply chain for harm reduction supplies)
    
    Description:
    The Harm Reduction Supplies Knowledge Hub, a non profit, independent hub run by harm reductionists, proposes a website to break the lack of access to information related to evidence-based articles, selecting, quantifying, sourcing and the procurement of harm reduction products. It aims to offer necessary information to improve procurement and list international publications to guide all steps of the products’ supply chain, from the science behind it to waste management. We would like your feedback to improve this innovative idea.
- 11:00AM - 12:30PM
  - Major 21: Users Choice Session
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Pye Jakobsson
    
    Implementing comprehensive HIV programmes with people who inject drugs: practical approaches from collaborative interventions
    Eliot Ross Albers; Hariga, Fabienne
    
    Key population silenced; double stigma, double criminalisation in East Africa
    Evans Odhiambo Opany; Ochieng, Ezekiel Achims
    
    Harm reduction interventions inside ‘smoking ghettos’ (‘fumoirs’): a community- based approach in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
    Jérôme Evanno; Bailly, Cynthia; Dézé, Charlotte; Luhmann, Niklas; Bouscaillou, Julie; Maguet, Olivier
    
    The advocacy capacity of Latin-American civil society in drug policy debate
    Pablo Cymerman; D’Agostino, María Eugenia; Touze, Graciela
  - Major 22: The continued UN commitment to the implementation of the comprehensive harm reduction package at the UNGASS 2016
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Michel Kazatchkine
    
    The Global Commission on Drug Policy has constantly called for the removal of the legal or de-facto barriers to harm reduction services, and the implementation of the package of comprehensive interventions developed and recommended by the WHO, UNODC and UNAIDS.
    
    Moreover, this package has been strengthened by WHO’s consolidated guidelines for key populations, in particular underlining the need to address structural barriers in order to implement effective and accessible programmes. Now that the UNGASS is approaching, it is time to re-evaluate the commitment of a horizontal UN approach to the world drug problem and harm reduction.
    
    This session will aim at discussing the role of the international community and the UN agencies in scaling- up harm reduction services and taking advantage of the UNGASS to discuss the social, economic, medical and development benefits of harm reduction and of a whole UN comprehensive approach to drugs.
    
    Speakers:
    Michel Kazatchkine, Global Commission on Drug Policy
    Edmund Settle, United Nations Development Program
    Monica Beg, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
    Annette Verster, World Health Organization
    TBC, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
    
    Organizers: Global Commission on Drug Policy, United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organization, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
  - Major 23: Alternatives to drug detention in Asia
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Ricky Gunawan
    
    Community-based models as alternatives to compulsory detention in Asia
    Claudia Stoicescu; Phelan, Maria
    
    Barriers to implementing and scaling up community- based harm reduction models in Malaysia: a case study in cure and care service centre Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur
    Vicknasingam Balasingam
    
    Community Treatment - an alternative approach to compulsory detoxification
    Tao Cai
    
    Toward community-based voluntary treatment for people with drug use disorders in Vietnam
    Oanh Thi Hai Khuat; Do, Xuan Thi Ninh; Michel, Laurent; Hamilton, John
    
    Harm Reduction integration with substance dependency rehabilitation at PEKA halfway house - community based service in Bogor- Indonesia
    Doddy Parlinggoman
- 11:30AM - 12:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: UNODC’s Practical Guide for Working with Law Enforcement
    Speaker(s):
    Pascal Tanguay (Law Enforcement and HIV/AIDS Network)
    
    Description:
    Law enforcement practices can disrupt harm reduction programmes and contribute to the risk environment in which PWUD live. It is possible for harm reduction services to establish relations with law enforcement on local and national levels that reduce harm from criminalisation and help law enforcement contribute to an enabling environment for health and rights promotion. In 2015, UNODC released a guide for CSOs on improving working relationships with police. The session will present some of the key ideas presented in the guide and open up for discussion around the audience’s experience of cooperation between harm reduction services and law enforcement, including what measures civil society can implement to reduce negative encounters with law enforcement.
- 12:30PM - 1:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: An Experience in the Clinical Application of Naltrexon for the Prevention of Relapse Among People Who Wish to Stop Using Opiate-Based Drugs
    Speaker(s):
    Dr. Popava Elena Lvovna (Assistant Chief Doctor of Government Narcological Dispenser Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
    
    Description:
    During this session, Dr. Popava will discuss the experience and positive results of a one year trial undertaken in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on the use of Naltrexone in preventing relapses among people who wish to stop using opiate-based drugs. Following the presentation, the floor will be opened for discussion.
- 1:30PM - 2:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Access to Harm Reduction Services for Young People Who Inject Drugs (YPWID) in Asia and the Pacific
    Speaker(s):
    Anita Krug (Youth RISE)
    Jeffry Acaba (Youth LEAD)
    Sandeep Shahi (YKAP Nepal)
    Alya Jannata (PKNI) Government representative/service provider (TBC)
    
    Description:
    This interactive session will explore some of the major issues affecting young people who inject drugs in the Asia Pacific and discuss examples of good practice in youth engagement and the development and implementation of youth-friendly services. This session is targeted at harm reductionists, researchers, UN representatives and harm reduction advocates.
- 2:00PM - 3:30PM
  - Parallel 31: Women who use drugs
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Ganna Dovbakh
    
    Developing networks for people/ women who use drugs in East Africa: Tanzania and Kenya
    Susan Masanja
    
    Putting it into practice: providing integrated sexual and reproductive health (SRH), HIV and harm reduction services for women who use drugs in Mombasa, Kenya
    Lilian Kayaro Esemere; Maloti, Danson Mwawana; McCartney, Daniel Jason
    
    Research on access for women who inject drugs to HIV prevention, treatment and care services in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
    Aisuluu Bolotbaeva
    
    Towards establishing successful (peer-led) gender-sensitive services for women who use drugs
    Parina Subba Limbu; Bradbury, Gill;
  - Parallel 32: Game changers: new players in supervised injection
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Fifa Rahman
    
    Changes, changes and more changes: operating an evolving and responsive supervised injecting facility 2001-2015
    Allison Maree Salmon; Jauncey, Marianne Elizabeth
    
    Community based harm reduction and care. The impact of the five drug consumption rooms on Danish drug users’ health and wellbeing. A national study
    Nanna Kappel; Toth, Eva; Tegner, Jette
    
    Drug consumption rooms save lives: results of peer led field research
    Dirk Schäffer; Gurinova, Alexandra
    
    Supervised Drug Consumption in Vancouver: evolving practices and next steps
    Thomas Kerr
    
    Safer injection facilities: a new service provision for Malaysia
    Ismail Baba; Azman, Azlinda
  - Parallel 33: Community mobilisation
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Judith Byrne
    
    Community mobilisation and organising
    Mick Webb; Masanja, Susan
    
    Harm reduction advocacy initiative in Japan: drug users and the stakeholders raised their voices for human rights and public health
    Goro Koto
    
    Advocacy platforms for PWID: establishing state drug user forums under the Asia Action on Harm Reduction programme in India
    Simon Wallington-Beddoe; Imlong, Tushimenla; Arumugum, Viswanathan; Sharma, Charanjit; Mehta, Sonal; Robertson, James
    
    NY harm reduction educators UPRISE peer programme. A path to empowerment, employment, and social justice
    Mike Selick; Jones, Terrell
    
    ‘The Connection’ an aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander drug user service
    Aimee Maree Capper
  - Parallel 34: Protecting health and human rights in prisons: research, action and tools
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 1
    Chair: Cinzia Brentari
    
    HIV in prison: a global systematic review of incidence and mortality
    Kate Dolan; Moazen, Babak; Noori, Atefeh; Rahimzadeh, Shadi; Farzadfar, Farshad; Hariga, Fabienne
    
    Opioid substitution therapy reduces deaths in prison
    Sarah Larney; Gisev, Natasa; Farrell, Michael; Dobbins, Timothy; Burns, Lucinda; Gibson, Amy; Kimber, Jo; Degenhardt, Louisa
    
    Bridge the Gaps: between HIV/AIDS prevention and psychosocial support service for PWUD inmates in Malaysia
    Ramthan Mazlimi; Sivapragasam, Malini; Ellan, Parimelazhagan; Azman, Azlinda
    
    Human rights-based monitoring of infectious diseases and harm reduction in prisons
    Genevieve Sander; Brentari, Cinzia
    
    Human rights approach and principle of equivalence of health in prisons
    Ehab Salah
  - Parallel 35: Outreach-based Interventions to increase uptake and adherence
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 2
    Chair: Olga Golichenko
    
    Improvement of HIV services for PWID along HIV testing and treatment cascade
    Pavlo Smyrnov; Deshko, Tetyana; Denisiuk, Olga; Tyshkevych, Anna
    
    Understanding low threshold HIV testing for people who inject drugs in Kenya
    Onesmus Mlewa Kalama
    
    Community based outreach for people who inject drugs in Kenya
    Andy Guise; Ndimbii, James; Ayon, Sylvia; Rhodes, Tim
    
    Low threshold HIV testing techniques that prove successful in increasing PWID screening for HIV
    Tetiana Deshko; Isakov, Victor
  - Oral poster session: Harm reduction & injecting
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 1
    Chair: Alex Wodak
    
    Overdose prevention services upon release from prison
    Gill Bradbury
    
    Parallels between HIV and HCV epidemics among young injectors in two countries: New York City, USA and Medellin, Colombia
    Pedro Mateu-Gelabert; Dedsy Berbesi, Honoria Guarino, Stephanie Campos, Shana Harris, Lauren Jessell, Samuel R. Friedman
    
    Broadening the map of psychoactive substances: the universe of drugs v.2.0
    Brun Gonzalez
    
    Médecins du Monde (MdM) challenges sofosbuvir’s patent in Europe to improve universal access to HCV treatment
    Celine Grillon; Tahir Amin, Jean-François Corty, Chloé Forette, Gaelle Krikorian, Marie-Dominique Pauti, Priti Radhakrishnan, Lionel Vial, Olivier Maguet
    
    When bulk isn’t best - the benefits of single use packs for the injection of street drugs
    Carole Hunter; John Campbell
    
    Exploring the decision to not inject: Policy implications for harm reduction strategies aimed at non-injection drug users
    Andrew Kristofer Ivsins; Cecilia Benoit, Susan Boyd, Karen Kobayashi
    
    Characteristics of male injecting drug users in Greater Cairo, Egypt
    Oumnia Abaza; Sherif Elkamhawi, Mariham Abdel Malak, Carla Khoury, Ghazel Tawakol, Wessam Elbeih, Hala Youssef, Hisham Ramy, Nehad Sanan, Ehab Elkharrat, Nabil Elkott, Cherif Soliman
    
    Levels of mortality among people who inject drugs from causes other than AIDS
    Mathers Bradley; Louisa Degenhardt
  - Workshop: Stop the Harm: Campaigning for Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform in Advance of the 2016 United Nations Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS)
    
    Location: Sri Pangalima 2 Workshop (Upper Level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Benjamin Phillips (Harm Reduction Coalition)
    Alissa Sadler (Open Society Foundations)
    Zara Snapp (Global Commission on Drug Policy)
    Robin Beck (Stop the Harm)
    Edward Fox (Release)
    
    Description:
    With the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs fast approaching, and reform happening apace across Latin America and the U.S., global drug policy has entered into a dynamic and critical era. UNGASS presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage and mobilise a global audience to advance harm reduction and drug policy reform. Yet, selling harm reduction and drug policy reform has never been an easy task. This workshop aims to make it easier by providing participants with the resources and knowledge to join and tailor the global ‘Stop the Harm’ campaign to locally relevant audiences and issues. Moreover, it seeks to lay foundational work for coalition and campaign building, and communications skills development that can be utilised to build momentum beyond UNGASS.
    
    The objective of this workshop is to introduce participants to the core principles and online platform of the Stop the Harm campaign before providing them with the tools, knowledge, skills, and confidence to engage, disseminate, and tailor Stop the Harm to promote their work for local audiences. Realistic and strategic UNGASS ‘asks’ and thematic areas will be reviewed, and key moments for mobilisation will be identified.
    
    The workshop format: Using short presentations, practical examples, and group discussion, five dynamic facilitators will work closely with participants to examine the core themes of the Stop the Harm campaign, and their direct application to the particular local issues relevant to participants. The facilitators—experienced campaigners and communications experts—will share strategies and approaches to tackling participants’ specific campaign goals and objectives in the lead up to UNGASS and beyond.
  - Workshop: Providing services to people who use drugs - moving away from compulsory drug treatment
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 2 Workshop (upper level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Facilitators:
    John Hamilton, (CEO, Recovery Network of Programs)
    Khuat Thi Hai Oanh, (ED, Center for Supporting Community Development Initiatives, Vietnam)
    
    Presenters:
    Thomas Cai (AIDS Care, China)
    Pascal Tanguay (Law Enforcement and HIV/AIDS Network)
    Olivier Maguet (Médecins du Monde)
    Machteld Busz, (Mainline)
    John Hamilton, (Recovery Network of Programs)
    Peter Higgs, (National Drug Research Institute)
    
    Description:
    The objectives of this workshop are to (1) generate ideas for voluntary and effective services for drug users, and (2) create an opportunity for making connections between people with experiences of providing voluntary services to drug users with people who are working to develop such a system.
    
    This workshop is targeted at a mixture of people with experiences in countries with good programmes for people who use drugs and people who are working in countries that still have compulsory drug treatment centers, including government officials, policy makers, NGOs and community representatives.
- 2:30PM - 3:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Launch: Step by Step: Preparing for Work with Children who Inject Drugs
    Speaker(s):
    Anita Krug (Youth RISE)
    Bikash Gurung (Youth RISE)
    Maria Phelan (HRI)
    Damon Barrett (International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy)
    Sylvia Ayon (KANCO)
    
    Description:
    An international working group has developed a tool which offers guidance to help organisations prepare for work with children. Step by Step: Preparing for Work with Children who Inject Drugs takes organisations through exercises that help staff think about the critical issues of child rights and protection, evolving capacities of young people and how to balance conflicting ethical and legal issues. The tool helps staff recognise the overlapping vulnerabilities of young drug users and builds knowledge in organisations on how to respond. The tool has been developed and piloted with harm reduction service providers.
- 3:30PM - 4:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for People who Inject Drugs: Community Voices on Pros, Cons, and Concerns
    Speaker(s):
    Shona Schonning (INPUD)
    
    Description:
    This session will discuss the outcomes from a recent consultation conducted by INPUD with the community of people who inject drugs in several regional, and one global consultation, in relation to their thoughts on PrEP. It is a thought provoking paper giving much needed insight into the priorities and pressing issues for people who inject. It offers a much needed corrective to the uncritical hype that is being widely given to this biomedical “magic bullet”.
- 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  - Parallel 41: Research: Qualitative peer based studies
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Magdalena Harris
    
    More than anecdotal: community strengthening through community owned and managed research
    Carina Edlund; Jakobsson, Pye; Rosengren, Viveqa
    
    Half a decade and a lifetime away
    Judith Therese Byrne
    
    Overdose prevention among hard-to-reach users of non- opioid substances
    Renate Van Bodegom; van Gaalen, Sanne; Grund, Jean-Paul; de Bruin, Dick; Busz, Machteld
    
    The inconsistent application of harm reduction: towards an explanation and a new unifying approach
    Heather I. Peters; Wrath, Kathy
  - Parallel 42: Models of harm reduction in different settings
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Olga Szubert
    
    Models of service delivery of the comprehensive package for people who use and inject drugs
    Annette Verster; Rodolph, Michelle; Rachel, Baggaley
    
    Decentralisation and integration facilitates earlier access to HIV services
    Nguyen Thi Minh Tam; Duc Duong, Bui; Thi Thuy Van, Nguyen; Kato, Masaya
    
    Harm reduction against the odds! The Afghanistan experience
    Dr Feda Mohammad Paikan; Rajaey, Abdur Raheem; Rahimi, Dr.Mohammad Hashim; Southwell,Mat
    
    ‘Ya pas Drap’: starting harm reduction services in Abidjan - Ivory Coast after the results of a rapid assessment and response
    Jérôme Evanno; Bailly, Cynthia; Dézé, Charlotte; Luhmann, Niklas; Bouscaillou, JUlie; Maguet, Olivier
    
    This session is supported by the World Health Organization
  - Parallel 43: Overdose response
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: John Ryan
    
    Making friends with Fentanyl: a practical response to a dangerous drug
    Julie Louise Latimer
    
    Accelerating implementation of community naloxone distribution - barriers and solutions
    Ruth Birgin
    
    Naloxone in Scotland - a national approach to preventing opioid overdose deaths
    Kirsten Horsburgh
    
    Forward thinking harm reduction: how an app can save lives
    Iain Buff Cameron; Rintoul, Chris; Danny Morris
    
    Overdose management - a community driven approach to save lives among the PWID in the state of Manipur, India
    Bangkim Singh Chingsubam
  - Parallel 44: Drug use practice and risk: harm reduction
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 1
    Chair: Genevieve Sander
    
    Transitions to injecting heroin in Kenya: research findings, community perspectives and implications for programming
    Maryna Braga; Guise, Andy; Ndimbii, James; Dimova, Margarita; Mar Han, Zin; Ochera, John; O. Cawstone, Anthony; Nyakundi, James; Kimami, John; Mureithi, John; Apuuli
    
    Injection of morphine sulphate capsules among drug users in Paris, France, and specific related risks: what do we need to adapt in our harm reduction interventions?
    Marie Debrus; Avril, Elisabeth; Rogissart, Valère; Maguet, Olivier; Corty, Jean-François
    
    Insights into injecting into the neck and risk from a national sample of people who inject drugs in the United Kingdom
    Lisa Maher; Cullen, Katelyn J; Hope, Vivian D; Ncube, Fortune; Parry, John V
    
    West African pattern for drug, set and setting. Consequences on local harm reduction interventions and regional networking
    Olivier Maguet; Dembele, Bintou; Ba, Idrissa; Evann, Jérôme; Olivet, Fabrice; Mahjoubi, Bilel
  - Parallel 45: Opioid substitution therapy
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 2
    Chair: Katie Alexandra Stone
    
    Drugs, Dignity and Dying: developing palliative care guidelines for methadone maintenance patients in Ireland
    Juliet Homan Bressan; Flanagan, Jean; Madani, Anjum
    
    ‘Doctors punish us using detox’. To explore the range of problems that clients opioid substitution treatment (OST) have experienced with doctors- narcologists in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
    Olga Byelyayeva
    
    Barriers to Optimal Implementation of Methadone Maintenance Therapy in Bangkok, Thailand: a qualitative study
    Kanna Hayashi; Ti, Lianping; Small, Will; Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, Prempreeda; Kaplan, Karyn; Suwannawong, Paisan; Kerr, Thomas
    
    Assessment of methadone substitution treatment social and economic effectiveness in the Republic of Belarus
    Alexei Alexandrov
  - Oral poster session: Law and Services
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 1
    Chair: Chad Hughes
    
    Efforts in support for transition from CCDU to voluntary community-based treatment and services in Asia
    Olivier Lermet; Vladanka Andreeva,
    
    Everything on my own: gaps in services for women who use drugs in Malaysia
    Fifa Rahman; Sarah Iqbal, Priya Lall, B Vicknasingam
    
    Accreditation of opioid substitution therapy centres in India: ensuring quality services
    Sophia Khumukcham; Neeraj Dhingra, Kim Hauzel, Chin Samte, Abraham Lincoln
    
    Evaluating the prescriber dosing trends of opioid substitution treatment program in private medical practitioner clinics after the implementation of psychotropic permit in Malaysia
    Dzafarullah Daud; Mohd Bokhari Md Noor, Bahirah Borhan, Mohd Nazri Md Dazli
    
    Country recommendations for creating enabling legal environments for access to HIV services for people who use drugs in Asia
    Brianna Harrison; Edmund Settle
    
    Sentencing Harm Reduction in Kachin State, Myanmar. Need for action
    Olivier Maguet; Renaud Cachia, Thomas Dusouchet
    
    UNDP is scaling up medication assisted therapy (MAT) with methadone in prisons of Kyrgyzstan
    Daniiar Saliev
    
    Peer driven intervention reaches hard to reach populations of people who inject drugs (PWID) in China
    Zhihua, Yan Cai; Thomas; Luo, Tina; Braga, Maryna; Smyrnov, Pavlo; Kushakov, Slava
  - Workshop: Addressing Gender-Based Violence among Women who Use Drugs in a Harm Reduction Setting: the WINGS Intervention
    
    Location: Sri Pangalima 2 Workshop (upper level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Louisa Gilbert (Global Health Research Center of Central Asia)
    Olga Rychkova (Open Society Foundations)
    Irena Ermolaeva (Asteria)
    
    Description:
    Workshop Objective: This workshop will provide an overview of the WINGS intervention, a gender-based violence (GBV) screening, brief intervention and referral model developed specifically to address the critical and intersecting needs of women who use drugs and experience GBV. GBV is a human rights violation and a serious public health concern among women who use drugs. Exposure to violence significantly increases risk of HIV infection, but often remains unaddressed due to lack of resources, capacity and awareness among HIV, harm reduction, and anti-violence programmes. WINGS was developed to address this service gap and was piloted in New York and Kyrgyzstan. The model focuses on identifying links between drug use and violence and includes GBV screening, risk assessment, safety planning, goal setting and social support to address GBV, referrals to GBV-related services and gender-specific HIV counseling and testing. In Kyrgyzstan, the WINGS pilot identified extremely high rates of GBV among women who use drugs: 80.8% reported experiencing either physical or sexual intimate partner violence in the prior year. The WINGS pilot demonstrated promising results in reducing GBV incidents, as well as decreasing drug use and increasing access to GBV and HIV services.
    
    Workshop format: The workshop will provide an overview of the WINGS intervention, highlight structural, community and organisational factors that may facilitate or impede its implementation, and provide an opportunity to discuss challenges and lessons learned. Participants will be asked to break down into small groups to identify strategies to adapt and implement WINGS to their programme settings.
  - Workshop: Engaging at-risk populations meaningfully in social science research
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 2 Workshop (upper level)
    Facilitator(s):
    Adam Bourne (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine),
    Andy Guise (University of California, San Diego),
    Eliot Albers (INPUD)
    Claudia Stoicescu (Harm Reduction International),
    Edo Agustian and Rima Ameilia (Indonesian Drug Users Network)
    
    Description:
    If evidence is to be collected and utilised in a meaningful and ethical way, it is essential that key populations are the centre of research activities. Community based research (CBR) is an approach to engaging at-risk populations in the design, collection and dissemination of data so that the resulting findings can best meet their needs. The session will begin by considering the various meanings and approaches to community based research. There are many different models of conducting research that is led by the community, or ensures their meaningful involvement, which can be effective in different settings or in addressing different research questions. A panel of speakers from community organisations, NGOs and universities will share their experience of leading or participating in research studies across a range of high, middle and low income settings. The experiences they describe will span a range research methods and will consider both the successes and challenges of adopting a community based approach. Within the workshop, delegates will be asked to consider what might constitute key principles of meaningful involvement in research for people who inject drugs. What are the essential characteristics that make a research project ‘community based’ and what are the values that both academic and community researchers should ascribe to that help ensure we deliver high quality, ethical research? We hope to establish a network of individuals interested in developing and promoting principles of community based research as a standard approach for all research with, by and for people who use drugs.
- 4:30PM - 5:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: That Which Binds us Together: First Hand Stories of the Attraction of Harm Reduction
    Speaker(s):
    Robert Power (Burnet Institute)
    
    Description:
    The purpose of this dialogue space is to explore what it is that binds us together. We now have three decades of experience of harm reduction across a wide-range of disciplines, socio-political contexts and cultures. Some of us have been here from the beginning; others will be in their early days. Some will have made a specific personal or professional decision to take up the mantle of harm reduction; others will have come to harm reduction through circuitous circumstance, happenstance or chance. Some will have accepted the approach immediately; others will have needed convincing. Ultimately, most bring unbridled passion and commitment to the cause of harm reduction, be they advocates, practitioners, researchers, or policy- makers. This diversity of experience and history is what we wish to capture. Participants will be asked a simple question: “Describe the moment that made you realise that harm reduction was the way forward and what that meant for you?” All will be invited to participate, with a two-minute limit per contribution. Time will be allocated at the end for guided discussion and reflection. The session will be filmed and contributions (with permission) will be uploaded to the conference website.
Wednesday October 21 2015
- 9:00AM - 10:30AM
  - Plenary 3: Leadership in Drug Policy Reform
    
    Location: Taming Sari
    This session will explore key areas of tension within the current drug control regime as we head towards the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs
    
    Chairs: Mme Ruth Dreifuss and Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch
    
    Dr Carl Hart, Columbia University
    Prof Juan E Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
    Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Dean of Medicine, University of Malaya
    Annie Madden, Executive Officer, Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
- 10:30AM - 11:30AM
  - Dialogue Space: Launch of Hepatitis C Special Issue, International Journal of Drug Policy
    Speaker(s):
    Carla Treloar (Centre for Social Research in Health)
    Magdalena Harris (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
    
    Description:
    This collection of papers explores the clear challenges in achieving optimal prevention and care of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs. With papers from researchers, clinicians and community advocates, this collection canvasses the most pressing issues, explores strategies to address hepatitis C infection and emphasises the need for partnership with communities affected by hepatitis C. It is hoped that this collection provides important information to help move this agenda forward, while stimulating discussion for achieving global control of hepatitis C and substantially reduce the global burden of hepatitis C -related disease. This collection was a collaboration between International Journal of Drug Policy and the International Network of Hepatitis in Substance Users.
- 11:00AM - 12:30PM
  - Major 31: Human rights and drug policy reform
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Damon Barrett
    
    A study on violation of the rights of PWUD in drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres in Manipur, India
    Dhojo Wahengbam
    
    Advocacy for a drug policy based on harm reduction and respect of the human rights of PWID in Morocco. A working synergy between NGOs and national bodies in the fight against AIDs and human rights
    Moulay Ahmed Douraidi; Karkouri, Mehdi; Ahmar, Morgane; Himmich, Hakima
    
    Addressing stigma and discrimination targeted at people who inject drugs - a multifaceted approach
    Fiona Poeder; Pepolim, Lucy; Harison, Tiia; Harrod, Mary
    
    The impact of the Indonesian government’s ‘emergency drugs’ declaration on harm reduction outreach programmes in south of Jakarta
    Andika Prayudi Wibaskara
  - Major 32: Stimulants and harm reduction in Latin America
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Vitor Araújo (Ministry of Health, Brazil)
    
    Co-chair: Ana Lúcia Ferraz (Ministry of Health, Brazil)
    
    This session examines and highlights crack and other stimulant use in Latin America, and the harm reduction response.
    
    Sponsored by the Ministry of Health of the Government of Brazil, it will showcase research from the region, as well as examples of successful low threshold harm reduction services
    
    Myrez Cavalcanti (Braços Abertos Program)
    - São Paulo programme for people who use crack
    Francisco Netto, Fiocruz– the Crack Report in Brazil
    Ricardo Baruch, Espolea, Mexico – Drug use and LGBT people: study on meth in Mexico
    Carola Lew, UNODC - the Crack Report in Uruguay
  - Major 33: Harm reduction in Asia
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Adeeba Kamarulzaman
    
    Leadership in transition: Ministry of Health Malaysia initiated government – non government organisation (GO-NGO) partnership, the driving force behind success of harm reduction efforts in Malaysia
    Shamala Chandrasekaran; Ellan, Parimelazhagan; Kurusamy, Tamayanty; Suleiman, Anita
    
    Peer leadership within Nepal’s community based harm reduction organisations: processes of community organising, systemic barriers to advocacy and countering the abstinence-based recovery agenda
    Ashmin Thapa; Nicolette, Burrows
    
    Effects of take-home methadone service on treatment compliance and heroin use reduction for methadone maintenance treatment clients
    Zhihua Yan; Cai, Thomas; Zhang, Bo; Chen, Suoyu
    
    Situation of injection drug use related HIV epidemic and response in Pakistan: planning for post 2015 era
    Anne Bergenstrom; Achakzai, Baseer; Furqan, Sofia; Saba, Marc;
- 11:30AM - 12:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Housing as a Harm Reduction Strategy: Health, Safety and Respect
    Speaker(s):
    Jean-Francois Martinbault (Sandy Hill Community Health Centre)
    
    Description:
    The purpose of this dialogue space is to illustrate that housing is the best way to empower people who use drugs to make healthier choices. It will demonstrate the effectiveness of the Housing First Approach as a harm reduction strategy. Focusing on housing allows us to see drug users as people with dreams, goals, hobbies, skills and personalities; instead of only focusing on their drug use. The dialogue space will give participants the concrete tools needed to implement a Housing First Intervention in their communities.
    
    The Housing First Intervention from the Oasis Program, in Ottawa, Canada, will serve as a foundation for discussion and information sharing. The participants will then have an opportunity to actively engage in a discussion about the model, to identify concrete problems and solutions that are applicable to their own experiences and environments. The group’s expertise will be used to problem solve and find relevant results.
- 12:30PM - 1:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Civil Society’s Role in Improving the Treatment Cascade Among People Who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Mandalay, Myanmar: The Importance of Not Leaving PWID Behind
    Speaker(s):
    Khine Thazin Soe (Burnet Institute, Myanmar)
    
    Description:
    There are approximately 75,000 PWID in Myanmar. The city of Mandalay is situated in the centre of the country and at the confluence of major drug trafficking routes. The city consequently shoulders a great burden of the drug use. This session will discuss the implementation and positive results of a 6-month programme in which peer-led rapid testing for HIV was successfully delivered in Mandalay. Within a short period of time this service proved to be a safe space for PWID to undertake HIV testing, helping to reach the UNAIDS targets of 90-90-90. In order to achieve these ambitious targets PWID must not be left behind.
- 1:30PM - 2:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Peer Needle Exchange Programmes
    Speaker(s):
    Mat Southwell (CoAct)
    Charan Sharma (Alliance)
    
    Description:
    Peer based needle exchange exists in many different forms from secondary needle exchange to peer outreach teams to supplier based schemes to needle and syringe programmes (NSP) run as part of drug user organisations. The global community is recognising the potential to end the AIDS epidemic, however, this will only be possible if HIV prevention measures can be deployed at scale with people who inject drugs (PWID). For NSPs to reach out into the injecting drug using community, peers need to be engaged or supported to promote the exchange of injecting equipment and adoption of safer injecting practices.
    
    This session will champion peer based NSPs as part of a comprehensive HIV response that is highly adaptable to local conditions and when delivered at scale can significantly impact on HIV and Viral Hepatitis among PWID. This session is another step in technical support collaboration between CoAct, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Community Action on Harm Reduction programme and the UK National Needle Exchange Forum. Through different events and an online practice sharing project, different peer NSP projects have shared their resources and experiences. CoAct has also produced a series of videos documenting examples of peer based NSP with injectingadvice.com. This Dialogue Space is a chance to gather learning and experiences on Peer NSP. Mat Southwell from CoAct will share key lessons of the project to date. Charan Sharma will then discuss the work of Alliance India in promoting different models of peer NSP as part of the CAHR programme. Everyone is welcome but if you have experience of Peer NSP then please bring resources (ideally in electronic format) that can be shared as part of this open source practice development project. CoAct will also be shooting videos to document examples of Peer NSP.
- 2:00PM - 3:30PM
  - Parallel 51: Stimulants: Harm and harm reduction
    
    Location: Taming Sari 1
    Chair: Sarah Evans
    
    ‘Ice’ in the ED: emergency department presentations in the Melbourne injecting drug user cohort study
    Shelley Cogger; Nambiar, Dhanya; Stoové, Mark; Dietze, Paul
    
    Speed limits: a review of the evidence about substitute prescribing to amphetamine users in the UK
    Russell David Newcombe
    
    Social Media as outreach tools, ensuring anonymity and confidentiality for people who use stimulant drugs
    Yvonne Sibuea
  - Parallel 52: Harm reduction/HIV and police
    
    Location: Taming Sari 2
    Chair: Monica Beg
    
    This session presents practical insights, benefits and challenges of cooperation between law enforcement, public, social and health authorities and CSO. Speakers will explore the potential and limitations of different schemes of cooperation while bringing into focus the specifics of practical implementation
    
    Svetlana Doltu; Country Coordinator of Police and HIV network, Lieutenant Colonel (retired), Ministry of Interior, Republic of Moldova
    
    Pol.Lt.Col. Krisanaphong (Tong) Poothakool, Thailand
    
    Jimmy Dorabjee, Chairman, ANPUD
    
    Greg Denham, UNODC Consultant
    
    Practical guide for CSO ‘Improving working relationships and collaboration with law enforcement’
    
    Session sponsored by the HIV/AIDS Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime
  - Parallel 53: Internet, Unternet and harm reduction
    
    Location: Taming Sari 3
    Chair: Jean Paul Grund
    
    Digital consumer involvement in harm reduction research: The Bluelight experience
    Monica Jane Barratt
    
    A season in Deep Web Forums: a doctor´s experience
    Fernando Caudevilla
    
    Novel psychoactive substances, the Internet and harm reduction: online communities as sites of resistance?
    Kieran Hamilton
    
    Online drug user-led harm reduction in Hungary: a review of “Daath”
    Levente Móró
    
    Technology & drugs – the end of drug policy as we know It?
    Jean-Paul Grund
  - Parallel 54: Harms and harm reduction: Image and performance enhancing drugs
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 1
    Chair: Vivian Hope
    
    Identifying and reducing harm for steroid and image enhancing drugs (SIEDs) injectors, through innovative approaches
    John Campbell; Hunter, Carole
    
    The harm reduction response to an increase in people who inject performance and image-enhancing drugs attending needle and syringe programmes in Australia: a tale of two states
    Jenny Iversen; Maher, Lisa
    
    Risk and vulnerability among people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs in England and Wales 2012-2013: where should we focus harm reduction?
    Katelyn J Cullen; Hope, Vivian D; Parry, John V; Ncube, Fortune
    
    An unhealthy glow? A review of Melanotan use and associated clinical outcomes
    Rebekah Lynne Brennan; Wells, John; Van Hout, Marie Claire
  - Parallel 55: Key campaigning issues for drug policy reform and UNGASS
    
    Location: Sri Bendahara 1
    Chair: Ann Fordham
    
    The LSE expert group on the economics of drug policy
    John Collins
    
    Decriminalisation: what does it mean in Asia?
    Gloria Lai
    
    Keeping drugs users out of jail. Leadership in developing a drug diversion policy for Indonesia
    Risa Fauzi Alexander; Riyanti, Lastri; Hughes, Chad; Ruddick, Abby
    
    Peer educators: movement of people who inject drugs(PWID) community in advocating access to health services in East Lombok - Indonesia
    Saputro, Rudi Taryadi; Frederik H.A Malada
  - Parallel 56: Ukraine: Harm reduction progress and the threat of conflict
    
    Location: Tun Sri Lanang 2
    Chair: Anke van Dam
    
    Ukraine focused HIV prevention programme brings HIV epidemic under control
    Andriy Klepikov; Deshko, Tetiana; Verster, Annette
    
    Effect of prevention interventions on risk behaviour change and HCV and HIV seroconversion among PWIDs in Ukraine
    Mariia Samko; Barska, Julia; Sazonova, Iana
    
    Crimea and South-East of Ukraine
    Igor Kuzmenko
    
    Drug users and armed conflict: east Ukraine’s brutal ‘war on drugs’
    Lily Sophia Hyde; Skala, Pavlo
  - Workshop: Interactive Training regarding Drug Injection-Related Practices and Risk Behaviours based on Experiences of Médecins du Monde (MdM) Model Programme in Paris and Colombes, France
    Facilitator(s):
    Marie Debrus (Médecins du Monde)
    
    Description:
    Issue: Merely providing sterile injection materials, general information, education and communication (IEC) to intravenous drug users has been shown to have a limited impact on several injection-related diseases: most importantly the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other viral and bacterial infections. This workshop targets people who inject drugs (PWID) and harm reduction workers.
    
    Workshop objective: The aim of this workshop is to improve knowledge on the wide scope of risk behaviours associated with drug injection-related practices and to provide educational and teaching techniques in order to involve PWIDs in less at-risk injection practices.
    
    Workshop format: After a short presentation of the issue, we will present our French experiences and explain our teaching techniques and the tools used:
    
    - Anatomical plastic-arm with veins to improve injection skills
    - Visual risk-scale to work on the risk-perception of beneficiaries
    - Colouring agent to show the HCV transmission within injection related paraphernalia
    - Route transition intervention (RTI) tools
    - Additional methods to find veins
    
    The participants will be divided in different groups to test our tools. The last part of the session will be focused on sharing participant experiences.
- 2:30PM - 3:30PM
  - Dialogue Space: Lessons from a De- Militarised Zone in the War on Drugs
    Speaker(s):
    Liz Evans (Community Insite)
    
    Description:
    For 23 years, Liz Evans worked in a community under siege from the impact of criminalising and pushing away people who use drugs. She was a young nurse who witnessed first hand how the impact of policies intended to help were causing destruction and crippling her community. Making progress required a complete reversal in thinking and in policy, from all angles. Her community mobilised, and used public education efforts, political advocacy and direct action to stimulate change. The results were radical. A demilitarised zone in the war on drugs was formed; a state within a state for those not accepted or seen as less than human in mainstream society. They formed a network of housing, specialised health care approaches including North America’s supervised injection site, managed alcohol programmes, crack pipe vending machines, a bank, shops, a laundry, a dental clinic, and hundreds of opportunities each month for community members to engage in paid and volunteer activities. Abstinence was not a requirement for citizenship and these spaces shifted the discourse about what is possible.
    
    During this dialogue space, Liz will share this story to show how talking about harm reduction does not go nearly far enough for societal transformation to happen. There is a need to fight for marginalised drug users to be treated with dignity across systems while shining the light on the human cost of our policy failures.
- 4:00PM - 5:30PM
  - CONFERENCE CLOSING
    
    Location: Taming Sari
    Chairs: John-Peter Kools, Chair of Harm Reduction International and Datuk Raj Karim, President of the Malaysian AIDS Council
    
    Speakers:
    YBhg Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Bin Abdullah, Director General of Health, Malaysia
    
    Keynote Speakers:
    Ruth Dreifuss, Former President of Switzerland; Member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy
    Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
    
    Presentation of award for the Best Film in the Indivior Harm Reduction Film Festival