An interesting development: drug users from around Asia met last week to formalize the Asian Network of People Who Use Drugs. ANPUD aims to create a network that can advocate for the rights of drug users. They’ll also, hopefully, provide some useful input into national and regional policies on narcotics, treatment, and HIV/AIDS. The full statement from ANPUD follows.

21 October 2009

Asian drug users unite to form regional organization

Over twenty-five drug users from nine
different countries met in Bangkok on 16th and 17th
October 2009 to finalize the Asian Network of People who Use Drugs (ANPUD)
Constitution and elect a Steering Committee for the first regional network
of people who use drugs. Based on the principles of Meaningful Involvement
of People who Use Drugs (MIPUD), ANPUD has been setup by people who
use drugs to advocate for the rights and unify the voices of their communities
across Asia. ANPUD has over 150 members throughout the Asia region who
are collaborating to influence decisions that affect their lives.

Despite being the region with the largest
number of people using drugs in the world, access to effective services
such as needle and syringe exchange programs and opioid substitution
therapy to prevent HIV and hepatitis C transmission, the Asia region
has the lowest coverage of harm reduction services across the globe.
The lack of affordable HIV and HCV prevention, treatment, care and support
services is largely driven by the stigma and discrimination associated
with drug use.

Jimmy Dorabjee, a key guiding figure
in ANPUD’s development, explained the raison d’etre for ANPUD:
“People who use drugs are stigmatized, criminalized and abused in
every country in Asia. Our human rights are violated and we have little
in the way of health services to stay alive. If governments do not see
people who use drugs, hear us and talk to us, they will continue to
ignore us.”

By forming ANPUD, people who use drugs
in Asia will be able to work together to engage organizations and policymakers
involved in the Asian response to HIV and drug use. ANPUD’s existence
is critical to efforts to improve policies and services that affect
the lives of drug using communities, and can contribute expertise, resources
and peer support to strengthen national responses and build drug user
networks. ANPUD will also focus its advocacy efforts on improving the
quality of lives for people who use drugs, harmonization of policies,
decriminalization, access to evidence-based, locally-driven harm reduction
services, HIV prevention and treatment services and increased access
to hepatitis C treatment for drug users in Asia.

The Director of the UNAIDS Regional
Support Team, Dr. Prasada Rao, spoke of the urgent need to engage with
drug user networks and offered his support to ANPUD, saying that “for
UNAIDS, HIV prevention among drug users is a key priority at the global
level. I am very pleased today to be here to see ANPUD being shaped
into an organization that will play a key role in Asia’s HIV response.
It is critical that we are able to more effectively involve the voices
of Asian people who use drugs in the scaling up of HIV prevention services
across Asia.”

By 31st December 2009, ANPUD
will be officially registered as an organization. In the meantime, the
constitution and governance documents have been approved. An interim
Steering Committee composed of six representatives was formed, with
Mohamad Firdaus (Apit) from Malaysia, Bun Bong from Cambodia, Ekta Thapa
Mahat from Nepal, Hadi Yusfian from Indonesia, Myo Kyaw Lynn (Tom) from
Myanmar and Yvonne Sibuea from Indonesia as elected representatives.

The Steering Committee is supported
by a Technical Support Team who will mentor the members of the Steering
Committee over the next few months.

At the end of the meeting, Ekta was
proud to be taking back something concrete to Nepal: “When I go back
home, I am now responsible for sharing the experiences with the 250
or so drug users who are actively advocating for better services at
the national level. It will be a great way for us to work together and
help build the capacity of people who use drugs in Asia.”

Ele Morrison, Program Manager,
Regional Partnership project,  of Australian Illicit and Injecting
Drug Users League (AIVL), said that “the results of the meeting exceeded
my expectations. The participants set ambitious goals for themselves
and they have achieved a lot in just two days to setup this new organization.
The building blocks for genuine ownership by people who use drugs is
definitely there.” This meeting was organized by drug users, for drug
users, with financial support from the World Health Organisation (WHO),
the United Nations Regional Task Force and AIVL.

For more information, please contact
Ekta at Abhiyan06@gmail.com / +977-98411 63331 or Jimmy Dorabjee at Jimmyd@burnet.edu.au / +61-419 354892.