In wide-ranging opening remarks to the current session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov placed HIV and drug use at the heart of the global agenda.
“HIV transmission through injecting drug use continues to be one of the main unresolved challenges of the international community. Widespread stigma, discrimination and lack of access to evidence-informed HIV services are among the key challenges,” he said.
Addressing the gathering of more than 1 000 representatives of Member States and civil society, he suggested that despite “notable progress” in increasing access to HIV services for people who inject drugs, there is still a long way to go.
In an apparent nod to the post-2015 development agenda Mr Fedotov put the challenge of the epidemic within the context of a health and rights-based prism: “[H]uman rights and public health considerations must be at the core of the international response to drug use and HIV,” he maintained.
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