Russian Embassy Protest - World AIDS Day 2011 - Australia

This is a video of the World AIDS Day protest held on the 1st of December 2011 outside the Russian Embassy in Canberra. This protest was designed to bring attention to the inhumane treatment Russian people who inject drugs experience and to call for the Russian Government to implement an evidence based and human rights compliant policy addressing injecting drug use. These policies include including pharmacotherpy programs i.e. methadone/buprenorphine, and Needle and Syringe Programs amongst many others.

This series of protests took place in over 10 countries around the world.

Thanks go to AIVL - Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League, INPUD - International Network of People who Use Drugs, NUAA - NSW Users & Aids Association and CAHMA - Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy for assisting in the organisation of this protest in Australia.

Please see the Australian media release below for further information on the current situation in Russia.

FIGHT HIV/AIDS NOT PEOPLE WITH HIV/AIDS
Day of protest scheduled at Russian Embassies throughout the world

One of the greatest health and human rights catastrophes of our times is currently playing itself out in the Russian Federation. In most of the developed world, the AIDS epidemic amongst people who inject drugs (PWIDs) has abated as a result of the implementation and scale-up of evidence-based harm reduction programmes including opioid substitution treatment, needle and syringe exchange programmes. Research shows that countries which implemented evidence-based harm reduction programmes early on, including many countries in Europe, have successfully contained and reversed HIV infection rates among people who inject drugs, most such countries have prevalence rates amongst PWIDs of less than 5%. In Russia, by contrast, an ideological refusal to implement, or even allow such programmes has fuelled a pandemic in which 37.2% of 1.7 million PWIDs are estimated to be living with HIV (although in some regions prevalence rates are up to 75%).

On the 1st of December, International AIDS Day, the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), and local organisations of people who use drugs in several countries around the world will lead protests for the millions of Russian people who use drugs who have needlessly lost their lives. These deaths are directly attributable to the brutal nature of Russian drug policies, which instead of offering treatment, force opiate users into confined detox programmes, which are often little more than prison camps.

The evidence for the effectiveness of harm reduction programmes in reducing and reversing HIV transmission is internationally recognized and endorsed by international bodies. Amongst those calling for the implementation of comprehensive harm reduction packages are UNODC, UNAIDS, and WHO.

We therefore call upon the Russian government to:

• Provide the life-saving programmes for those most at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, this includes OST and NSP for people who inject drugs.
• Cease criminalizing the use of illicit drugs, which is in and of itself a major barrier dissuading people who use drugs from accessing the few services that are available.
• Begin providing Anti Retroviral Therapy to treat HIV to people who use drugs.
• Replace the current punitive, coercive, discriminatory approach to people who use drugs with a human rights and science based one, including the right to liberty and security of person, the right to health, the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment, and the right to be free from discrimination.
• Cease persecuting Russian activists and organisations that are calling for change and the introduction of harm reduction, human rights based measures.
• Recognise that people who use drugs must be at the forefront of designing programmes and policies aimed at improving our lives.

The Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League a member of INPUD is joining this global protest in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. People who use injecting drugs helped avert a HIV epidemic in this country; we were provided with the equipment to make that possible; injecting equipment and pharmacotherapies. Our Russian friends cannot be left alone to die in silence!


www.aivl.org.au www.inpud.net
Contact: Jude Byrne on 0417 241 028 or via email at: judeb@aivl.org.au for interviews.
Protest: December 1st at Russian Embassy in Canberra from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Protests will also be taking place in London, Stockholm, Berlin, Bucharest, New York, Barcelona, and Toronto. Information on all the protests is avaialable from http://russianembassyprotest.wordpress.com

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Activist*
• Russia
• Australia
• Soviet Union
• Canberra
• inject*
• protest
• AIDS
• HIV
• INPUD
• AIVL
• CAHMA
• NUAA
• Human Rights
• Drugs
• Embassy
• HIV/AIDS
• Pharmacotherapy
• drug policy
• OST
• NSP
• needle and syringe program
• Opioid Substitution treatment