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| Interview with Prof. Gerry Stimson |
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| Tuesday, 12 May 2009 | |
 The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) held its 20th annual International Conference on Harm Reduction in Bangkok, Thailand from April 20-23, 2009. The conference brought together harm reduction activists from all over the world to share experiences and discussions on the latest innovations in the field. We met up with Professor Gerry Stimson, Executive Director of IHRA, following the closing of a successful conference and discussed the event as a whole, including the representation from the MENA region. What is your opinion/evaluation of this year’s conference? • I am very pleased that it was a successful event - the best for a long time. It always surprises me how many new things are occurring in the field of Harm Reduction. There has been some opposition towards holding the conference in Bangkok due to previous incidents, why did you insist on Bangkok? • We wanted to hold the conference in Asia again since we have not held a conference here since 2003 in Chiang Mai. There has been a lot of progress in Harm Reduction in the region, however, in parallel, repressive measures against Drug Users, such as compulsory treatment centers and harsh penalties for drug use, continue. Therefore we wanted to take Harm Reduction forward in the region, specifically with Thailand, as there have been serious concerns with actions against drug users with the “War on Drugs” that has been waged in the country. In addition, while Thailand has made progress in areas of HIV/AIDS prevention, the prevention of HIV/AIDS for drug users is falling way behind. We thought that the conference would make a small contribution to taking things forward in Thailand, especially since the Thailand Global Fund application includes a large harm reduction component. So the timing seemed right to build on the opportunities in Thailand. And I believe that it was a right choice because many discussions with the Thai government and NGOs were held and there is considerable progress being made and I remain optimistic for the future of harm reduction in Thailand. Compared to previous years, do you feel that this conference had any particular significance for professionals in the field of Harm Reduction? • Yes, I think that there was something for everyone in the conference but most notable were two important issues: First, linking harm reduction with human rights; in other words, the right to health and the right not to be hurt by the state simply because you are a drug user. People told us that we can’t “talk about human rights in Asia”, but you clearly can, and this was demonstrated by both the personal testimonies of many people that came to the conference and other evidence about human rights problems both in this region and elsewhere. Second is the new discussion that has been raised regarding the meager resources allocated for harm reduction globally, which make up only about 2% of the global HIV/AIDS budget. This is clearly unacceptable. We were very pleased that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) was represented at the conference and raised in a very frank way their own concern about this situation. We were also pleased that there were many other donors here with whom we engaged our concerns. Can you relate the importance of the conference for civil society? • The conference engages a wide range of people including policy makers, UN officials, researchers, frontline workers, drug user activists and community organizations. The conference is in particular very important for CBOs/NGOs because it allows rapid exchange of information regarding the latest ideas and practices in harm reduction programs. It is a great learning experience and we are glad that MENAHRA was able to sponsor new people to the conference, especially those working on the new harm reduction projects in the MENA Region and funded by MENAHRA. Is there any advice for importance of MENA visibility at the conference in terms of abstracts presented and how can MENAHRA help facilitate this? • There is a lot of good work in some countries in the MENA region, but we need to rapidly build on that work in order to be able inform people of the progress in the region at future conferences. Many people are interested in the MENA region and specifically the MENAHRA project, as it is one of the largest investments ever made in developing harm reduction on a regional basis. I hope that more harm reduction activists from the MENA can attend the next Harm Reduction Conference in Liverpool - 2010. I also hope that all those involved in MENAHRA – the Knowledge Hubs and Network, will do their best to assist people in submitting high quality abstracts. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 12 May 2009 ) |
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