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Harm Reduction 2009: Harm Reduction and Human Rights
IHRA’s harm reduction conferences have been held around the world each year since 1990, and the next event in this highly successful series takes place in Bangkok, Thailand. The theme for this event will be 'Harm Reduction and Human Rights'.

Over four days, this conference will be the main meeting point for all those interested in harm reduction, and an invaluable platform for advocacy, debate, and discussion. For nearly two decades, these events have been the key forum for the dissemination of harm reduction ideas and practice, and have helped to put harm reduction on the map.

In December 2008, the Executive Programme Committee met to create the conference programme for Harm Reduction 2009: IHRA’s 20th International Conference. The meeting took place in two locations – Bangkok and London – over three days, and reviewed the 900 abstracts that have been submitted from all over the world. The result is another high quality, comprehensive programme containing keynote speeches and a range of different sessions to appeal to, and cater for, all of our delegates.

Although subject to changes (as we await confirmations from the selected speakers), the draft programme includes Plenary Sessions on:

  • ‘Injecting Drug Use and HIV: A Comprehensive Review of the Situation and Response in Asia’ – including presentations by Anand Grover (the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health), Dr Anindya Chatterjee (Program Director of the HIV/AIDS Asia Regional Program), Dr Tim Brown (University of Hawaii) and a community speaker from the Asia Pacific Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS (APN+).

  • ‘Harm Reduction and Human Rights’ (the conference theme) – including presentations from Manfred Nowak (the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), Dr Danius Puras (from the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child), Umesh Sharma (International HIV/AIDS Alliance) and Tripti Tandon (Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, India).

  • ‘Methamphetamines’ – organised by the Global Amphatamine-Type Substance (ATS) Project on the back of the successful 1st Global Methamphetamine Conference in 2008, and including presentations from Professor Carl Hart (Columbia University), Paul Dessauer (Western Australian Substance Users’ Association), Dr Apinun Aramrattana (Chiang Mai University) and Dr Olga Borodkina (St. Petersburg State University).

There will also be 15 Major Sessions (more than in the previous IHRA conferences) and 36 Concurrent Sessions covering our largest ever range of topics – including human rights, coercive treatment, alcohol, tobacco, hepatitis, research, opiate substitution treatment, peer-driven approaches, policing, prisons, young people, poverty, sex work, drug-related deaths, conflicts, risk environments, drug law reform, needle exchanges, gender issues, psychosocial interventions, families, nursing, and sex partying.

As always, the Executive Programme Committee has also sought to reflect the location of the conference with sessions highlighting issues for both Asia and Thailand. For example, the Plenary Session on drug use and HIV in Asia on the opening day will be followed by two Concurrent Sessions on ‘Harm Reduction in Asia’ and ‘Response Beyond Borders: The Asian Consultation on HIV Prevention Related to Drug Use’. All of the Plenary and Major Sessions will also have simultaneous translation in Thai as well as the official conference language (English) – as will half of the Concurrent Sessions. Further languages may be added if suitable donors or sponsors can be found.

More details about individual speakers and presentations will be available later in 2009 (once the speakers confirm their participation), and this draft programme will be regularly updated between now and April. In addition to the formal programme, there will also be a number of satellite sessions and additional meetings, as well as keynote speakers in high profile Opening and Closing Sessions, around 400 poster presentations, a conference party on the evening of Wednesday 22nd April, a Drugs and Harm Reduction Film Festival and a separate itinerary of open and interactive community workshops to provide delegates with opportunities for further participation and engagement.

Harm Reduction 2009 Website Launched

 

IHRA and the Conference Consortium are pleased to launch the new website for Harm Reduction 2009: IHRA’s 20th International Conference. This event – the latest in a long-running series – will take place in Thailand. The website – www.ihraconferences.net – will contain all the information that delegates need to register for and attend the conference.