Alliance of Public Health together with 15 civil society organizations call for decriminalization of people who use drugs.
HIV and Hepatitis epidemics still grow while people who use drugs have no access to prevention and treatments.
23% of new HCV infections are caused by sharing unsterile injecting equipment.
15 international organizations, acting at global and regional levels, endorsed the Declaration of the hepatitis community.
“We, the viral hepatitis community, whole-heartedly support Member States’ commitment to the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030. In order to achieve that goal, we call on world political leaders to remove all barriers to the uptake of the full range of prevention services by people who use drugs by reforming laws, law enforcement procedures and discrimination that hinder access, including the criminalization of minor, non-violent drug offences and to adopt an approach based overwhelmingly on public health promotion, respect for human rights and evidence”.
Please find here the Declaration, which has been officially released during the World Hepatitis Summit (1-3 November 2017, San Paolo, Brazil)