The priority issue this year is Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) in partnership with the International Gender Policy Network is organizing an event to inform the participants of the CSW session participants about the issues of violence against women who use drugs and/or are engaged in sex work.

The priority issue this year is Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) in partnership with the International Gender Policy Network is organizing an event to inform the participants of the CSW session participants about the issues of violence against women who use drugs and/or are engaged in sex work. The key goal of the event is to draw the attention of the UN Member States and UN agencies to the extensive and systematic violence women who use drugs experience in the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) and call on the CSW to take action to prevent it though systematic political change.

Violence affects women who use drugs extensively in the region due to a combination of repressive drug laws; patriarchal societies; limited or nonexistent opportunities to report abuse; lack of access to adequate healthcare; and insufficient legal, social, psychological and treatment support. Women who use drugs are often involved in sex work and those women face even greater barriers because they are viewed as being guilty of the “double crime” of using illicit drugs and sex work.

Much violence against these women is state-inflicted, through discriminatory policies and law enforcement practices. Systematic violence occurring at the hand of state institutions indicates a clear and persistent refusal of governments to recognize and uphold basic human rights. One urgent message must be recognized and acted upon: policies that criminalize drug use and sex work provoke violence and hence must be reformed.

The event, organized under the auspices of the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the UN organized on March 12, will rather UN agencies representatives, country delegations, human rights and harm reduction activists will deliver messages from the affected community, including representatives of organizations of women who use drugs and provide sex work.

“All of us here share concern regarding extremely inhumane treatment and violence against women who use drugs. I am a victim of such treatment on the part of law enforcement authorities, which hunt down women who use drugs as if they are witches. They broke into my house, beat up my daughter, insulted my mother, planted drugs and both physically and morally assaulted me, and I am disabled. They fabricated my case, which they based on a few separate parts of one Criminal Code article, which, combined, resulted in my being sentenced to 25 years in prison for possession of 1 gram of heroin. This is a typical treatment of female drug users, their prison sentences exceed the sentence given to Breivik, who killed 77 innocent people in Norway” – Ekaterina Gargaphadze, NGO Aceso Georgia, in pre-recorder address to the participants of the CSW.

The flyer of the event is attached.

For more information: EHRN Policy Brief Halting HIV by Reducing Violence against Women: The Case for Reforming Drug Policies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: http://harm-reduction.org/index.php/news/2342-ehrn-present-policy-brief-on-violence-against-women.html.

EHRN Submission to UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women: call for immediate action to stop violence against women who use drugs: http://www.harm-reduction.org/images/stories/News_PDF_2012/ehrn_submission_to_special_rapporteur_on_violence_1.pdf.

Simona Merkinaite

Advocacy and Policy Program Officer Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) NGO with the Special Consultative Status with Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) www.harm-reduction.org